FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Four: Run-D.M.C.

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

kkk.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Lisa Haun/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 

Part Four: Run-D.M.C.

___________

FOR this outing…

xxx.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

of Inspired By…, I am shining a light on one of the most influential Hip-Hop acts of all-time, Run-D.M.C. They have influenced so many artists and, whilst the playlist below is not necessarily going to collate songs that sound like Run-D.M.C., they are from artists who have cited them as influences. Here is some more information about the legendary group:

“Run-DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980s. Along with Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Public Enemy, the group pioneered new school hip hop music. The group was among the first to highlight the importance of the MC and DJ relationship.

With the release Run–D.M.C. (1984), Run-DMC became the first hip hop group to achieve a Gold record. Run-D.M.C. was followed with the certified Platinum record King of Rock (1985), making Run-DMC the first hip hop group to achieve this. Raising Hell (1986) became the first multi-platinum hip hop record. Run-DMC's cover of "Walk This Way", featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, charted higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than Aerosmith's original version, peaking at number four. It became one of the best known songs in both hip hop and rock. Run-DMC was the first hip hop act to have their music videos broadcast on MTV, appear on American Bandstand, be on the cover of Rolling Stone, perform at Live Aid and be nominated for a Grammy Award.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Run-DMC at number 48 in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2007, they were named The Greatest Hip Hop Group of All Time by MTV and Greatest Hip Hop Artist of All Time by VH1. In 2009, Run-DMC became the second hip hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2016, the group received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, Raising Hell was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".

This is a salute to the amazing and hugely influential Run-D.M.C. and the artists that they have inspired. It is amazing (but no surprise) to see how far…

xxx.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Kemp/AP/REX/Shutterstock

THEIR brilliance spreads.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Chocolate-Related Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

www.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: @foodess/Unsplash 

Chocolate-Related Tracks

___________

EVEN though Easter is about more…

xxx.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: @anniespratt/Unsplash

than chocolate, it is one of the main things we associate with the day! Easter Sunday is tomorrow (4th April) so, to mark that, this Lockdown Playlist is all about songs that relate to chocolate. There are a couple of Easter-named/related songs so, in the mix, there is going to be quite a variation. It is a very different Easter this year, but many of us will still be able to speak with our families and enjoy some of the traditions we usually have. From the food (including hot cross buns) and being together (as much as is possible this year), it is a time of year many of us look forward to. Enjoy this sweet and tasty selection of tracks that, whilst not as delicious and moreish as Easter eggs and the copious amount of chocolate many of us will consume tomorrow, they are definitely…

xxxx.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Hello I’m Nik/Unsplash

A sonic treat.

FEATURE: Diamonds: Ranking Rihanna’s Eight Studio Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Diamonds

aaa.jpg

 Ranking Rihanna’s Eight Studio Albums

___________

WITH talk that there is…

aaaaa.png

 PHOTO CREDIT: Instagram/Fenty Beauty

a ninth studio album could be coming from Rihanna very soon, I have been looking through her albums and hearing how she has changed and progressed through the years. The Guardian recently marked potential album news with a ranking of her singles. I am taking a different direction as I am placing the studio albums. I think that Rihanna is one of the greatest modern R&B/Pop artists - many of her albums remain underrated and under-played. From 2005’s Music of the Sun through to her most recent release, Anti, of 2016, I am deciding which are the ultimate Rihanna albums. I don’t think that the Barbados-born superstar has released a poor or average album, so it is hard deciding which are going to be in the lower placings – that is the challenge I have set myself. If you are a big fan of Rihanna or coming to her new, you might have your own say regarding the albums and which should be where. In each case, I am picking the key tracks from each album, where you can stream the album, which track is best, plus a sample review. Here are my placings of the albums of a modern-day Pop icon who remains…

aaaa.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Craig McDean for The New York Times Style Magazine

SO loved and influential.

__________________

8. A Girl Like Me

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 10th April, 2006

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: The Conglomerate/Don Corleon/Mike City/Poke and Tone/Jonathan ‘J.R.’ Rotem/Evan Rogers/Stargate/Carl Sturken

Standout Tracks: SOS/We Ride/Break It Off (with Sean Paul)

Review:

“Hip-hop and mall rock have all but replaced dance pop on American airwaves, but every once in a while a Euro-style club mash-up breaks through. Barbados-born emigre Rihanna's huge dancehall pop hit last year, "Pon De Replay," was savvy and sexy, and her new smash, "SOS," is even more so. Singing a snaky Destiny's Child-like melody around synth riffs and machine beats from Soft Cell's Eighties classic "Tainted Love," Rihanna proves America still appreciates clever pop when it hears it. Like her filler-packed debut album, this similar but superior follow-up doesn't deliver anything else as ingenious as its lead single: Lightweight dancehall and R&B; jams lack the single's ear-bending boldness. But the burning rock guitar of "Kisses Don't Lie" and haunted strings of "Unfaithful" help make A Girl Like Me much more likable” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Unfaithful

7. Music of the Sun

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 29th August, 2005

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: Dernst Emile/Full Force/Vada Nobles/Poke and Tone/Evan Rogers/Stargate/Carl Sturken

Standout Tracks: If It's Lovin' that You Want/You Don't Love Me (No, No, No) (ft. Vybz Kartel)/Music of the Sun

Review:

“Given the proliferation of young and beautiful urban dance-pop divas dominating the radio and music video airwaves in 2005, it initially was tempting to discount Rihanna as yet another Beyoncé-Ciara-Ashanti cash-in. But like her Def Jam labelmate Teairra Mari -- another young and beautiful urban dance-pop diva who emerged out of nowhere in 2005 -- Rihanna is winsome rather than wannabe, thanks in no small part to her producers. Just as Teairra Mari benefited greatly from irresistibly shrewd beat-making on her debut album, Rihanna benefits from the knowing production work of Syndicated Rhythm Productions, aka Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, who together produced a laundry list of contemporary teen pop sensations during the prior decade. What these guys do that's so irresistibly shrewd is synthesize Caribbean rhythms and beats with standard-issue urban dance-pop: Caribbean-inflected urban, if you will. So while a song like "Pon de Replay" -- to pick the most obvious exhibit -- is driven by booming dancehall-lite beats and a reggae vocal cadence (and title spelling), it's a simple dance-pop song at its core, with standard English-language singing as well as a can't-miss singalong hook (and a glitzy, urban-style MTV video to boot). The best songs on Music of the Sun follow this appealing template, including the similarly catchy few songs that follow the aforementioned album-opening smash hit: "Here I Go Again," "If It's Lovin' That You Want," and "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)." As with most albums of this ilk, Music of the Sun descends into faceless slow jams after a while, overall consistency not being among its attributes, but thankfully it picks up the pace toward the end of its 13-song run and concludes on a fun note, with a remix of "Pon de Replay" featuring Elephant Man. The result is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year (and one of the most infectious summer jams, for sure), as well as a nice Caribbean primer for those not ready or willing to jump on the increasingly trendy dancehall and reggaeton bandwagons concurrently sweeping through America's more fashionable cities” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Pon De Replay

6. Loud

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 12th November, 2010

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: Alex da Kid/C. ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Ester Dean/Mel & Mus/Polow da Don/The Runners/Sandy Vee/Sham/Soundz/Stargate

Standout Tracks: S&M/What's My Name? (ft. Drake)/Man Down

Review:

“After releasing five albums in as many years, the singer is closer than ever to becoming the complete pop package Jay-Z envisioned when he signed her the same day she walked into Def Jam during his tenure as president. Though gifted with runway-ready looks, Rihanna has improved in other areas through sheer perseverance. Her voice-- once fragile and shrill-- is now robust enough to take on songs like the delightfully Eurotrash pounder "Only Girl (In the World)" not only on record but at high profile awards-show performances. Her semi-scripted dance moves are sultry and spontaneous. She can be kinda funny (or at least genuinely excitable) in interviews. She'll never be as boldly talented as Beyoncé or freakishly engaging as Gaga, but there's still charm to be found in her (relatively) everyday affability. She recently said Loud was the first album she wasn't nervous about releasing, which makes a lot of sense. She's worked hard to get to this point.

If anything, the record sounds too easy at times. "California King Bed" is a "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"-type power ballad genetically engineered to soundtrack a bi-coastal Kate Hudson rom-com. "Raining Men" is a shameless Beyoncé rip-off that would be quickly dismissed if not for the fact that it's a pretty-damn-good Beyoncé rip off with a characteristically scene-stealing guest verse from Nicki Minaj. Meanwhile, "Fading" copies Rihanna's own lightweight R&B formula so much it's redundant.

On the flip, "Man Down" takes her violent side to its logical conclusion as it finds her on the run after killing a poor guy dead, its reggae bounce matching perfectly with Rihanna's mesmerizing cadence. And "Skin" is her sexiest song yet, a haunted, near-dubstep stunner that wouldn't sound totally out of place on Massive Attack's Mezzanine. Her laissez-faire attitude toward hit-making on Loud can result in too-safe moves or semi-experiments that come off surprisingly great, but, at this rate, by the time she runs out of singles from this record there will be another one ready to go. More than a stocking stuffer but less than an idol, Rihanna has grown into one of the most reliable pop stars we've got” – Pitchfork

Key Cut: Only Girl (In the World)

5. Good Girl Gone Bad

aaaa.jpg

Release Date: 31st May, 2007

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: Carl Sturken/Evan Rogers/Neo Da Matrix/J.R. Rotem/Stargate/Christopher ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Shea Taylor/Timbaland

Standout Tracks: Don’t Stop the Music/Shut Up and Drive/Rehab

Review:

“The difference is, Rihanna’s now got three albums under her sequined belt, and her latest, Good Girl Gone Bad, finds the Barbadian singer perfecting the formula she’s been working out publicly over the last 18 months. In other words, she’s finally figured out that she’s a dance artist and the majority of the album is comprised of uptempo dance-pop numbers in the vein of her biggest hit “SOS.” “Don’t Stop The Music” is most closely related to that 2006 smash, a track that borrows heavily from a song that itself borrowed heavily from something else (this time it’s Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” which took its “Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa” refrain from Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makoosa”). The ‘80s is also the jumping off point for “Push Up On Me,” which draws on freestyle and post-disco Moroder for its concoction of “Planet Rock” laser beams and “Flashdance” synths.

That Good Girl is being led instead by the more urban “Umbrella,” which features Jay-Z, speaks to Def Jam’s desire to maintain Rihanna’s R&B status. That the song is just plain good, regardless of genre, proves that Jay and Rihanna, who’s already scored hits across several formats with a string of singles that couldn’t be more different from each other, are dedicated to producing quality hits—however frivolous they may be. This time around, the ballads are better suited to Rihanna’s limited vocal talents and age than the more adult-skewed material of her first two releases. It’s just too bad that Ne-Yo, who co-wrote and produced three tracks here, keeps writing the same two songs over and over: Unlike the cat-being-skinned-alive “Unfaithful,” “Hate That I Love You” and the title track maximize Rihanna’s range, and both could be formidable hits, but they’re lazy carbon copies of “So Sick” and “Irreplaceable,” respectively. (Not to be outdone, Timbaland, also a producer on the album, is quickly proving himself to be a repeat offender too.)

Lyrics are once again an Achilles’ high heel for Rihanna—something that should be a non-issue considering her contributions are minimal. When I first heard “Rehab,” I joked that it wasn’t any worse than a Justin Timberlake track. And then I found out he wrote it. Aside from the fact that nobody should even try to write a song called “Rehab” so closely following Amy Winehouse’s, the track is further evidence that JT is better off penning lyrics about sexy backs or dicks in boxes. Good Girl might have the most consistently hilarious song titles of the year (“Breakin’ Dishes,” “Shut Up And Drive,” “Sell Me Candy,” just to name a few), but the songs themselves just don’t live up to their campy names. Good Girl Gone Bad is far from a great album, but it guarantees Rihanna, who’s unequivocally a singles artist, at least a few more shiny hits to tuck under her belt” – SLANT

Key Cut: Umbrella (ft. JAY-Z)

4. Talk That Talk

dsss.jpg

Release Date: 18th November, 2011

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: Alex da Kid/Mr. Bangladesh/Calvin Harris/Chase & Status/Cirkut/Da Internz/Dr. Luke/Ester Dean/Gareth McGrillen/Hit-Boy/No I.D./Rob Swire/Stargate/The-Dream

Standout Tracks: Where Have You Been/Talk That Talk (ft. Jay-Z)/Birthday Cake

Review:

“Rihanna's sixth album is a blast of obnoxious, filth-fuelled pop. Coming only a year after Loud, everything has been turned up, then up again, from its steroidal Ibiza synths to the smutty innuendo – clearly she's decided that S&M's whips and chains were a little on the tame side. So there are exhortations to eat her cake (she doesn't mean cake!) and to lick her persuasion (she doesn't mean persuasion!), although sometimes the metaphors disappear with a laughable shrug, as on Birthday Cake: "Ooh, I want to fuck you right now." It works best when the music hall bawdiness is left aside in favour of bleak euphoria, of which there's plenty – the xx-sampling Drunk on Love and the absurdly banging Where Have You Been are particularly fiery, and show exactly why she's at the top of the pop game” – The Guardian

Key Cut: We Found Love (ft. Calvin Harris)

3. Unapologetic

zaa.jpg

Release Date: 19th November, 2012

Labels: Def Jam/Roc Nation/SRP

Producers: Benny Blanco/Brian Kennedy/Carlos McKinney/Chase & Status/David Guetta/Elof Loelv/Flippa123/Future/Giorgio Tuinfort/Justin Parker/Labrinth/Luney Tunez/Mex Menny/Mike Will Made-It/Mikey Mike/Mikky Ekko/Naughty Boy/Nicky Romero/No I.D./Oak/Parker/ Ighile/Andrew ‘Pop’ Wansel/Stargate/Terius ‘The-Dream’ Nash

Standout Tracks: Pour It Up/Jump/Stay (ft. Mikky Ekko)

Review:

“And so, Unapologetic rolls out with the grimy neck-snapper “Phresh Out the Runway” then gets to the radio killers — the stately Sia-assisted single “Diamonds” and chilly, Eminem-featuring “Numb.” Riri and Slim’s previous smash team-up “Love the Way You Lie” probed the impact of domestic abuse; this one features the line, “I’m the butt police, and I’m looking at your rear rear rear.”

Elsewhere, Rihanna sings about her unapologetic love of money (the moody, murky “Pour It Up”), her unapologetic love of love (slow-jam “Loveeeee Song,” featuring a gushy, Auto-Tune-warbling Future), her unapologetic love of living in the moment (winning David Guetta thumper “Right Now”), and most controversially, her unapologetic love of Chris Brown. Her onetime beau pops up on the record’s most gleeful groove, “Nobody’s Business,” a breezy throwback that interpolates Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

That the duo decided to inject their obstinate anthem with music by a man who was the victim of, and accused perpetrator of, physical abuse during his tormented 50 years on Earth is almost too much to unpack. But emotional baggage has become the key instrument in Rihanna’s arsenal, right next to her flat, thin, nimble, expressionless voice. As hard as Unapologetic tries to cast Riri as a Beyoncé-like balladeer on the dramatic “What Now” and “Stay,” the younger star’s vocals will never have the curvy fullness of her mentor Jay-Z’s wife. She isn’t a full-bodied diva; she’s a pointy provocateur. Her voice’s unadorned nakedness is its greatest strength. She can slither over a grinder like “Jump” (shout-out to Ginuwine’s “My Pony”), or perk up her patois for a reggae tune like “No Love Allowed.”

The now-24-year-old’s voice may be simple, but it’s distinctive — and as defiant as her album titles. “What’s love without tragedy?” she demands on the excellent, “Message in a Bottle”-esque “Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary” as Unapologetic winds down, sounding at once like a petulant teen and a world-weary woman. Everyone profiting off her ultra-successful career — including Rihanna herself — doesn’t seem to want to find out. Especially when going bad has been such good business” – SPIN

Key Cut: Diamonds

2. Rated R

aaaa.jpg

Release Date: 20th November, 2009

Labels: Def Jam/SRP

Producers: Chase & Status/Terius ‘The-Dream’ Nash/Chuck Harmony/Brian Kennedy/Stargate/C. ‘Tricky’ Stewart/Rob Swire/will.i.am/The Y's

Standout Tracks: Hard (ft. Jeezy)/Russian Roulette/Cold Case Love

Review:

“The cover of the new Rihanna album features a severe black-and-white head shot of the star. She has her hand clapped over her right eye; her left eye, surrounded by a raccoon ring of mascara, glares back at the viewer. The context here is no secret: It is impossible to look at those eyes without remembering the images of Rihanna’s bruised face in the aftermath of her beating in February by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. Until recently, the singer has been quiet about the incident. Songs like “Russian Roulette” — a domestic-violence victim’s confession whipped into soaring melodrama — tell us why: She was busy saying her piece in the studio.

If by some accident of fate, or maybe record-company cynicism, the new Chris Brown album has arrived at the same moment as his ex’s. The resultstempt a reviewer to talk in terms of moral victories, but the real triumphhere is artistic. Chris Brown has made a bland, occasionally obnoxious, proforma R&B album. Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year.

Brown mostly ignores the elephant in the room, churning out punchy dance-pop songs full of club-ready beats and Casanova gestures. He gloats about “the cars and the girls and the cribs.” He promises ecstasy (“Gonnamake you bloom like a flower,” he tells the girl in “Take My Time”). There are also lost-love ballads, delivered by Brown in his nasal wisp of a singing voice. But as unfair as it sounds, the Rihanna incident has made it impossible to hear him in the same way; the sweetness that animated songs like 2008’s “Forever” is now a hard sell.

With Rihanna, singing has never been in doubt. The question has always been personality: Is there a flesh-and-blood woman lurking beneath the big voice and model looks? On Rated R, she answers the question emphatically. There are a couple of engaging up tempo tunes. (The Star Gate-produced “Rude Boy”is smutty fun, with a Caribbean bounce.) But this is an album with a grim theme: love gone horribly wrong. “What you did to me was a crime,” Rihanna sings in the slow-boiling “Cold Case Love.” Elsewhere, she is bent on vengeance. “I lick the gun when I’m done,” she cries in “G4L,” “because I know that revenge is sweet.” The songs are etched in somber shades and minor chords, with Rihanna belting over synths and booming beats. The results are a musical match for the black-on-black CD cover — goth R&B.

No single song approaches the grandeur of Rihanna’s 2007 megahit,”Umbrella.” But even the most sprawling power ballads here have an intimatequality. In the plaintive “Stupid in Love,” Rihanna turns the blame inward.”My new nickname is ‘You Idiot’ . . . /That’s what my friends are calling mewhen they see me yelling into my phone.” Such introspection is evidently beyond Brown. On “Lucky Me,” he turns his troubles into an occasion for self-congratulation: “Even when my world’s falling down/I still wear a smile.” A simple sorry might have made a better song – or at least made Brown a better guy” – Rolling Stone

Key Cut: Rude Boy

1. ANTI

zzz.jpg

Release Date: 28th January, 2016

Labels: Westbury Road/Roc Nation

Producers: Boi-1da/Brian Kennedy/Chad Sabo/Daniel Jones/DJ Mustard/Fade Majah/Fred Ball/Hit-Boy/Jeff Bhasker/Kevin Parker/Mick Schultz/Mitus/No I.D./Robert Shea Taylor/Scum/Timbaland

Standout Tracks: Kiss It Better/Desperado/Love on the Brain

Review:

“Anti existed as an album cycle before it existed as an album -- arguably long before Rihanna knew what form her eighth album would take, either. Work on Anti began in the autumn of 2014 and proceeded in semi-public, progress being measured in Instagram posts and tweets, along with intermittent singles, each released to white-hot anticipation but none metamorphosing into massive hits. When Anti finally appeared in January 2016 -- three years after Unapologetic and months later than expected -- it bore none of these 2015 singles, a move that suggests a tacit acknowledgment that neither the curiously muted Kanye West and Paul McCartney collaboration "FourFiveSeconds" nor the unrestrained roar of "Bitch Better Have My Money" functioned as appropriate anchors for the album. Then again, neither would've felt at home on the cloistered Anti, the first of Rihanna's records to feel constructed as a front-to-back album. Such a sustained sensibility distinguishes Anti from its predecessors, records where album cuts often felt like afterthoughts. That's not the case with Anti. This is an album whose heart lies within its deep cuts. Mood matters more than either hooks or rhythm: it's a subdued, simmering affair, its songs subtly shaded yet interlocked to create a vibe caught halfway between heartbreak and ennui. The latter has always been a specialty of Rihanna -- her distance from her material was at once appealing and alienating -- so hearing her lean into "Love on the Brain" and "Higher" is something of a revelation: her voice is hoarse and ravaged, yet she's also controlled and precise, knowing how to hone these imperfections so her performance echoes classic soul while feeling fresh. These songs come at the end of the album, after a series of songs that drift and wonder, the sound of an artist trying to figure out not only what her album is but who she is. By the end of Anti, Rihanna may not arrive at any definitive conclusions about her art but she's allowed herself to be unguarded and anti-commercial, resulting in her most compelling record to date” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Work (ft Drake)

FEATURE: Hello, I Know That You've Been Feeling Tired: Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut Version of Deeper Understanding at Ten

FEATURE:

 

 

Hello, I Know That You've Been Feeling Tired

cccc.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

 Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut Version of Deeper Understanding at Ten

___________

I have been so busy thinking about…

xxx.jpg

50 Words for Snow turning ten in November that I forgot about Director’s Cut! The album, came out on 16th May, 2011, so it is important to look ahead to that anniversary. This is an album where Bush reworked songs from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) that she felt could be stripped back and improved. I guess there is a fuller and, at times, cluttered production sounds on those album. One can understand why Bush wanted to re-approach these tracks and give them a new spin. Before I get to the single from Director’s Cut that is about to turn ten,  I want to do a complete detour and mention a news story regarding one of 50 Words for Snow’s tracks that is being included in primary school music curriculum in England. The Kate Bush News website provides more details:

“In England, an expert panel of musical specialists have chosen Wild Man, Kate’s lead single from her 2011 50 Words for Snow album, to be included in a new list of 37 musical works that every primary school child (ages 5-11) should listen to. Ed Watkins, director of music at the West London Free School, who sat on the panel, said: “The list we have ended up with has music from the major world traditions, traces the history of popular music and celebrates British and European art music.” As well as works from ‘the Western Classical tradition’ – including Mozart’s Rondo all Turca, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain, the list also features music from major world traditions including Brazilian Samba, Bhangra from Punjab and Argentinian Tango, as well as English folk sea shanties.

The Model Music Curriculum document explains how the song can be explored in the classroom: “From Bush’s acclaimed 50 Words for Snow, Wild Man tells of the sightings of the mythical Yeti in the Himalayas and of efforts to hide and protect him. The use of sound effects, riffs and spoken words will all be points to bring out as well as getting to grips with the words and imagery before/while listening to the music”.

It is pretty cool that a late-career recording is being taught at schools. It goes to show that Bush’s music is as striking on her current album as it was on her earliest albums. I want to concentrate on a song whose reimagining split people. Deeper Understand appeared originally on The Sensual World and, in 1989, it was precinct and powerful that Bush was talking about computers taking over lives. I may have quoted this before, but here is an interview exert where Bush talked about the original track:

“It's like today, a lot of people relate to machines, not to human beings, like they hear telephone [Makes ringing noise] and think "Is that for me?" I guess it playing with the idea of how people get more and more isolated from humans and spend a lot more time with machines. I suppose America's a really good example where there are some people who never go out, they watch television all day, they're surrounded by machines, they shop through television, they speak to people on the phone; it's just distant contact. The idea of the computer buffs who end up going through divorce cases because their wives can't cope with the attention the computer gets. They have an obsessive effect on people, and this track's about one of those types.

I was playing with the juxtaposition of high tech and spirituality. I suppose one inspiration was a program I saw last year about a scientist called Stephen Hawking who for years had been studying the universe, and his concepts are like the closest we've ever come to understanding the answer. But unfortunately he has a wasting-away disease, and the only way he can talk is through voice process. It was one of the most moving things I've ever heard. He was so close to the answers to everything, and yet his body was going on him - in some ways it was the closest I'd ever come to hearing God speak! The things he was saying were so spiritual, it was like he'd gone straight through science and come out the other end. It was like he'd gone beyond words, and I do think that there is this possibility with computers that we really could learn about ourselves on levels that could take us into much deeper areas. With my music, I like to combine both the old and the new, the high tech and the compassion from the human element, the combination of synths and acoustic instruments.(Will Johnson, 'A Slowly Blooming English Rose'. Pulse, December 1989)”.

I like the original very much so, on 5th April 2011, I had the chance to hear this fantastic track updated. The original song has been celebrated and ranked high by the media when it comes to Bush’s best songs. I think the combination of it being so relevant and eye-opening and its incredible production made it stand out. I am not sure whether Deeper Understanding is one of those songs that sounded too edgy or needed improvements. It has a warm sound and, when you listen to the chorus, you are blown away by the richness of the vocals and how you get this sort of voice coming from a computer.

By 2011, the grip and reliance on technology was even more pronounced. Although some critics feel the new recording sounds less important and it doesn’t have the same quality and impact as the original, it is a wonderful song that is clearly important to Bush. She spoke about the 2011 update to The Irish Times when promoting Director’s Cut:

“When we finally speak, Bush is late, and profusely apologetic. Her day has been taken up with a short film she has directed for Deeper Understanding. It’s the first single to be taken from Director’s Cut, a new album of reworked songs culled from The Sensual Worldand The Red Shoes. Six years after the release of her last album, Aerial, Bush had multiple motivations in going back to these songs. Technological and production limitations were a factor, but artistic doubt also lingered in the back of her mind.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and I think some of my more interesting songs are on those two albums. You look back on your work and often feel there’s something wrong with all of it, but that’s just part of being a human being as much as an artist. I tried to make some of those songs sound like I’d want them to sound now, but this time I wanted it to be more about the songs than the production. I also approached them in a lower key, because my voice is lower now.”

Ah yes, that voice. The multiple octaves of childlike coos and sibilant sensuality that can go from gothic whisper to oscillating scream. In 1977, when Wuthering Heightsmade her the first woman to reach No 1 in the UK charts with a self-written song, audiences didn’t know what to make of her. She had been singing and – crucially – writing her own songs since she was 13. EMI snapped her up”.

Bush has also been quite prophetic in her attitude to technology, from being one of the first musicians to use a Fairlight digital synthesiser to foreseeing (in 1989’s Deeper Understanding) the central role computers would play in our lives. It’s also the first single from Director’s Cut, and one of the most radically reimagined.

“I was trying to get across the idea of a computerised voice,” says the singer, “so back then, even with a Vocoder used as part of a group of voices, it was difficult to hear. I also wanted a single voice to convey that the computer is a single entity. We just couldn’t get the effect, but nowadays it’s so easy to computerise a voice.”

The voice in question on the song is that of Albert, aka Bertie, her 12-year-old son. Bush is famously guarded of her private life, but is effusive when speaking about him. “I thought it was more poignant to have a child as this bringer of compassion in a cold technological world. I asked him if he would sing on it, and he thought it was great fun”.

“ Director’s Cut took a long time. It’s funny, every time I start a new album I say to myself ‘this one’s going to be really quick’, and of course it ends up going on and on. But it was great to go straight into the new songs, while I was still in focused, studio mentality. With Aerialand this new album I feel there’s a greater space. They’re a bit different to my other work, but then I feel that about everything when I start it, and I don’t want to keep making the same album all the time. It’s hard to talk about work when it’s in progress, because it’s always an evolving process”.

To mark ten years since Bush re-released Deeper Understanding, I wanted to mark the anniversary and dive deep into the Director’s Cut single. Whether you prefer the original version from The Sensual World or appreciate what she did On Director’s Cut, it is a song that, to me, seems more relevant than ever. I would say that, since 2011, we rely on technology even more. She could almost record the song again but, on Director’s Cut, I think Deeper Understanding sounds great. At a time when we have been speaking to people through computers and have not been able to have that human touch, Deeper Understanding has…

A whole new meaning and importance.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

ccc.jpg

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

___________

MANY people might not…

zz.jpg

recognise the song that I am featuring in this Groovelines. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s The Message is seen by many as being the most influential Hip-Hop record of all time. Released in 1982 on the group’s debut album, The Message, this is a song worth getting deep over. Rolling Stone ranked the song as number-one in their list of the best Hip-Hop tracks back in 2012:

“The Message” was a total knock out of the park,” says Chuck D. “It was the first dominant rap group with the most dominant MC saying something that meant something.” It was also the first song to tell, with hip-hop’s rhythmic and vocal force, the truth about modern inner-city life in America – you can hear its effect loud and clear on classic records by Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, N.W.A, the Notorious B.I.G. and even Rage Against the Machine. Over seven minutes, atop a creeping rhythm closer to a Seventies P-Funk jam, rapper Melle Mel and co-writer Duke Bootee, a member of the Sugar Hill Records house band, traded lines and scenes of struggle and decay: drugs, prostitution, prison and the grim promise of an early death. There was a warning at the end of each verse: “Don’t push me, ’cause I’m close to the edge/I’m trying not to lose my head,” each word enunciated like a gunshot.

Flash, born Joseph Saddler, grew up in a neighborhood that closely resembled the song: the South Bronx during the worst of the Seventies urban blight. He and the Furious Five had become the number-one DJ crew in the borough – pushing aside early pioneers like Kool Herc and Pete “DJ” Jones – with a mix of party-hearty showmanship and Flash’s groundbreaking turntable skills. (Among other things, he invented the scratch.)

In a 1983 interview, Flash claimed “The Message” showed that he and the Five “can speak things that have social significance and truth.” But when Flash and the Furious Five first heard Bootee’s original demo (a track the latter called “The Jungle”), they worried that hip-hop clubgoers would not dig the subject matter and slowed-down beat, unusual for an early rap record. As Melle Mel remembered, he was the group member who “caved in” and agreed to record it; Sugar Hill boss Sylvia Robinson got him to write and rap more lyrics to Bootee’s track, and Sugar Hill studio player Reggie Griffin added the indelible synthesizer lick. Despite the credit on the record, Flash and the rest of the Five appeared only in a closing skit, in which they’re harassed and arrested by police.

“The Message” was a commercial success, peaking at Number Four on Billboard‘s R&B-singles chart, but its messy birth was fatal to Flash and the Five, who split into factions. Their most notable reunion would finally come in 2007, when they became the first rap group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

Like all classic records, it can make an impact now and has not lost any of its significance and power. I have been listening to it when researching it for this feature. One can see other Hip-Hop acts and songs that came in its wake; inspired by its sheer significance. Maybe it was quite a bold and unusual record in 1982 but, looking back nearly forty years later, and one can see how it has shaped so many great Hip-Hop albums since!

zz.jpg

I love the background and story of The Message. In 2019, Rhino spent some time outlining the importance of an iconic Hip-Hop record:

“Formally credited to Edward G. Fletcher, Melle Mel, Sylvia Robinson, and Clifton “Jiggs” Chase, “The Message” arrived when rap was still in its infancy as a musical genre (at least as far as mainstream audiences were concerned, anyway), but it nonetheless stood out from the pack by featuring lyrics which tackled a serious issue – inner city poverty – rather than being a bunch of self-congratulatory boasts. In fact, Melle Mel admitted in an NPR interview that the group originally didn’t want to do the song because it wasn’t what they were used to rapping about.

Thankfully, the group changed their mind: “The Message” went on to be one of the most influential songs of all time, and writer Cherese Jackson explained the reasons for its importance in a March 2019 article for Liberty Voice:

The reality in 1982 was that millions from the projects in Brooklyn, New York to the ghettos of Watts in California were given very little in the way of choices or opportunities in how they could live. Contrary to what the White House was saying or the news media were reporting, black and brown people were not just these unsavory characters addicted to drugs, crime, and unwedded pregnancies. They were children born into abstract devastation and were desperately looking for a way of escape.

iurtfy.jpg

Often mistaken for a threat, “Don’t push me because I am close to the edge,” was actually a cry for help…or at the least, an acknowledgment. People who felt trapped in these inhumane circumstances were lamenting that life was not all good in the “hood.” The hood had become the place were dreams and people were forgotten. Tucked away neatly out of the line of sight of America, the government could easily throw money, subsidized housing and food stamps at them in hopes they would kill themselves and keep it quiet. But out of those concrete streets grew a restlessness that would not be quilled. There was a story that needed to be heard, and hip-hop became the vehicle in which that was possible.

Mind you, the chart success of “The Message” wasn’t nearly as impressive as its history would lead you to believe: while it climbed to #4 on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart, it topped out at #62 on the Hot 100. The UK, on the other hand, was far more receptive to the song, sending it to #18 on their singles chart. But in the long run, it doesn’t really even matter how it did on the charts. What matters is the seismic change it caused in music, one which continues to ripple to this day”.

Since its release, The Message has been lauded and ranked high in the lists of the greatest Hip-Hop songs ever. This Wikipedia article shows the song has been celebrated and honoured through the years:

“The song was ranked as number 1 "Track of the Year" for 1982 by NME.

Rolling Stone ranked "The Message" #51 in its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, (9 December 2004). It had the highest position for any 1980s release and was the highest ranking hip-hop song on the list. In 2012 it was named the greatest hip-hop song of all time.

It was voted #3 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs, after Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R." and The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".

In 2002, its first year of archival, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, the first hip hop recording ever to receive this honor.

"The Message" was number 5 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

"The Message" is number 1 on HipHopGoldenAge's Top 100 Hip Hop Songs Of The 1980s”.

I think that the album, The Message, is an incredible listen. One that everyone should seek out and spend some time with. I think that the Hip-Hop scene was fairly new then. We often associate the Golden Age as being between 1986 and 1991 (roughly) - so this was one of the very earliest Hip-Hop records. I can imagine upcoming artists being blown away by it and knowing that they witnessed a moment of history!

To close, there is one more article that I want to borrow from. It states that, whilst the Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s reign was fairly short-lived, songs like The Message were hugely transformative and crucial:

“The eponymous Grandmaster Flash was more at home behind the turntables, and although socially-conscious lyrics might not have been something he was closely involved with, he did perfect and popularise several seminal scratching and mixing styles which laid the foundations for the generations of hip-hop music to come.

As a creative force, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five didn’t last much past “The Message”. Their follow-up, “White Lines”, by this time without Grandmaster Flash himself, was credited to Grandmaster and Melle Mel, and after that, the occasional attempt at re-grouping apart, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five lived on as part of music history, but no longer released records under that name.

Not long after “White Lines”, Sugar Hill Records closed down amidst a blizzard of lawsuits and the record label which took hip-hop mainstream was no more.

In its brief existence, though, co-founders Sylvia and Joe Robinson brought a new art form to the ears of the listening public.

And they brought us one of the most important songs in music history, “The Message”.

If only we’d listened more closely to what Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five told us 40-odd years ago, and acted on the concerns they raised at the time, the world might not be in the mess it’s in today.

But the question for us here and now isn’t why haven’t we put right what they sang about 40 years ago. The time for that has gone.

The question for us all is what are we going to do differently in the next 40 years…”

I shall close things off here. I am going to go back even further in time for the next Groovelines. I guess a lot of people are aware of The Message but, for anyone who is not, I hope that this feature has provided necessary information and story behind a hugely important Hip-Hop work. It still move you and sound fresh in 2021. I wonder whether we have learned lessons in the time since the song was released or, in years to come, The Message will still serve as a lesson to people around the world. The significance and influenced of The Message is likely to last…

FOR decades more.

FEATURE: The April Playlist: Vol. 1: HOT HOT in the Melting of the Sun

FEATURE:

 

 

The April Playlist

w.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Bree Runway 

Vol. 1: HOT HOT in the Melting of the Sun

__________

IN this week’s Playlist…

rrr.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: St. Vincent

there are great new tracks from Bree Runway, St. Vincent, Garbage, Du Blonde (ft. Andy Bell), Courtney Barnett (ft. Vagabon), Bobby Gillespie/Jehnny Beth, Drug Store Romeos, and Olivia Rodrigo. There is also some quality from Demi Lovato (ft. Ariana Grande), Working Men’s Club, Nasty Cherry, and The Snuts. If you require some energy and inspiration to get you into this Easter weekend, then I think that the songs in the Playlist should do the job. Whilst it is not as busy as previous weeks, there is still enough in the mix that should keep you busy. As the weather looks to get colder over the next day or two, these songs will definitely be able to provide…

rrr.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Demi Lovato

SOME much-needed heat.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

xxx.jpg

Bree Runway – HOT HOT

a.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Zackery Michael

St. Vincent - The Melting of the Sun

dddd.jpg

Garbage - The Men Who Rule the World

aaa.jpg

Du Blonde (ft. Andy Bell) - All the Way

xxx.jpg

Courtney Barnett (ft. Vagabon) - Don't Do It

aaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Kamara/The Guardian

Bobby Gillespie, Jehnny Beth - Remember We Were Lovers

www.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Melanie Hyams

Drug Store Romeos - What's On Your Mind

aaaa.jpg

Olivia Rodrigo - déjà vu

ccc.jpg

Demi Lovato (ft. Ariana Grande) - Met Him Last Night

mmm.jpg

Working Men’s Club - X

eee.jpg

Nasty Cherry – What’s the Deal

eee.jpg

Dry Cleaning – Unsmart Lady

ccc.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Udoma Janssen

Sons of Kemet (ft. Kojey Radical) - Hustle

#
ooo.jpg

Dinosaur Jr. - Garden

ccc.jpg

The Snuts – Glasgow

ddd.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Luka McGhie

Foxes – Dance

aaa.jpg

Gary Numan - Saints and Liars

qqq.jpg

Willy Mason – Youth on a Spit

cccc.jpg

Squirrel Flower - Hurt a Fly

aaa.jpg

Fickle Friends - Not in the Mood

aaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Jen Krause

Varley – Bubble Up

ccc.jpg

Throwing Snow - Brujita

eee.jpg

Iggy Azalea, Tyga - Sip It

aaaa.jpg

Olivia Holt – love on you.

aaaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Ellyn Jameson

Johanna Samuels - All Is Fine

aaaa.jpg

Idris Elba (ft. Wavy Boy Smith)  - Light Work - From the Netflix Film, Concrete Cowboy

mmm.jpg

girl ultra – rosas (dímelo)

aaaa.jpg

TrueMendous, Masta Ace – Emmett Till

qqqq.jpg

Jordan Rakei - Imagination (Late Night Tales: Jordan Rakei)

aaaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Sequoia Ziff

Bess Atwell – Time Comes in Roses

aa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: RCA Records

BROCKHAMPTON – COUNT ON ME

aposops.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Graham Tolbert

Flock of Dimes - One More Hour

aaaaa.jpg

The Fratellis – Strangers in the Street

wwwww.jpg

Lucy Hayes - Growing Pains - Demo

wwww.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Kirk Cedric

Rosie Darling – Coping

w3.jpg

Shaybo - Streets

qaaaa.jpg

Jessica Wilde - BODY

zAA.jpg

Nicole Atkins & Marissa Nadler - Mr. Blue

aaaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: AJ Incammicia

oddCouple (ft. Jamila Woods) - Reflections

FEATURE: The BRIT Awards 2021: My Predictions

FEATURE:

 

 

The BRIT Awards 2021

eee.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Mix are nominated in the British Group category

My Predictions

___________

I have held back a little bit…

qqqq.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Arlo Parks is nominated in the Mastercard Album (for Collapsed in Sunbeams), Female Solo Artist, and Breakthrough Artist categories

as it has been a few days now since the nominees for this year’s BRIT Awards. This year’s ceremony occurs on 11th May and, whilst it will be a different-looking ceremo0ny to year’s past, the nominees are very strong. Although the BRITs is not my favourite ceremony, I like to cover a lot of music award shows as they combine so many different artists and albums. As The Guardian reported, there is greater gender (and sonic) balance this year:

“After last year’s male-dominated Brit awards entrenched the clear gender disparity in British pop, this year’s nominations go some way to redressing the balance.

Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Celeste, Joel Corry and Young T & Bugsey lead this year’s awards with three nominations apiece. The British album category also features four out of five female nominees for the first time in Brits history, with the aforementioned women joined by Jessie Ware and J Hus – a marked improvement on 2020, when the category featured no women.

“Women have always made great music and wonderful albums, but this is the first time in the entire Brits history that we have dominated the best album category,” said Jessie Ware. “The time is now – albeit long overdue – to start respecting and appreciating the vital role women, and their music, play in the British music industry.”

Out of 176 eligible albums, 121 were made by men or all-male groups, 55 by women or groups featuring women, and one by a non-binary artist, Sam Smith.

Ten British female artists were recognised across 25 slots in mixed-gender Brit categories, up on last year, when only one – Mabel – featured.

More than half the nominees for British album, female solo artist, male solo artist, breakthrough artist and single are non-white, reflecting the enduring dominance and evolution of British rap and R&B, as well as the diversity of the Brit Academy. With approximately 1,500 members, including artists, managers, promoters, media figures and label staff, this year’s voting body achieved gender parity and 26% Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation”.

With each of the categories boasting some great talent, I am running down each category and predicting who I think will win on 11th May. I am usually okay when it comes to predicting winners, through the BRITs this year could throw in some surprises! Here are my picks regarding BRIT Award winners: one of the most important ceremonies…

rrr.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: BTS are nominated for International Group

ON the British music calendar.

__________________

Mastercard Album

q.png

 

Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 29th January, 2021

Producer: Gianluca Buccellati

Label: Transgressive

Standout Tracks: Hurt/Caroline/Black Dog

Review:

“With each song shrouded in a mist of melancholia and coming-of-age confessions, Arlo’s breathy vocals soften, and make palatable, the often harsh and uncomfortable realities of life. The use of metaphors and images of nature, nourishment, filmography and friendship offer vignettes of reality that is so near-perfect, you can almost taste it.

From feel-good ’90s R&B which is used to disguise the reality of what it’s like being with someone who is in denial about how they feel about you (‘Too Good’) to the hazy neo-soul in ‘Bluish’ and a multitude lo-fi indie bangers that dive into the friction and dark side of companionship, and with a healthy dose of spoken word littered throughout, ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ is testament to Arlo’s mission statement of not pigeonholing herself so early on in her career.

As a debut, it is a sublime body of work from the kind of artist who is meticulous in all aspects of her craft. To put it simply — in the artist’s own words — she is “making rainbows out of something painful”, and we’re just so lucky enough that everything she touches turns to gold” – DORK

Key Cut: Hope

Celeste - Not Your Muse

sdkdd.jpg

Release Date: 29th January, 2021

Producers: Jamie Hartman/John Hill/Josh Crocker

Labels: Both Sides/Polydor

Standout Tracks: Strange/Love Is Back/A Little Love

Review:

“Most of the record’s emotional beats come from the raw, husky voice of Celeste herself -- it’s why 2019’s “Strange” is still so affecting over a year later. The single -- which ultimately propelled her to win BBC’s Sound Of and the Brits Rising Star award last year -- is sparse and reserved, held through a rasping curiosity for a failed relationship. In “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” Celeste exemplifies her anxieties with booming instrumentation. “Everyday it gets so loud / Everyday I can’t turn around,” she wails over a crescendoing big band, pinpointing her struggles through an auditory lens.

Elsewhere, Celeste croons and sighs through pleas to damaged connections, desperate to make her feelings known on songs like “A Kiss” (“Bit your lip and left you swollen”) and “Beloved” (“If I had my way / You’d be here to stay”). On the sultry “Love Is Back,” she flirts with the idea of diving “head first” into a new crush. Even though her sense of self seems diminished here, there is still power to be had in taking charge of romantic fervor, whether it be healthy or not.

Coming as a high point, the titular track is where the ethos of Celeste’s body of work shines through. Starting quietly on whispers and plucked guitar strings, she admonishes a lover for not accepting her true self. “I’ll let you know when I need you to liberate me” she knowingly sings, as if she’s held this power inside her for a lifetime. The track creeps to a frightening crescendo, ethereal screeching surrounding the might of her confidence. “I’ll hold my pose / But I’m not your muse,” Celeste proclaims, rising high above a wave of criticism and judgement, showcasing the truest form of herself, and the care that it deserves” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Stop This Flame

J Hus - Big Conspiracy

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 24th January, 2020

Producers: J Hus (exec.)/Jae5 (also exec.)/IO/Levi Lennox/Maestro/Nana Rogues/Scribz Riley/Sunny Kale/TSB

Label: Black Butter

Standout Tracks: Big Conspiracy/Repeat/No Denying

Review:

“Big Conspiracy is more introspective and subdued than its predecessor. The distorted vocals on Fortune Teller snarl, but there’s nothing here quite as upfront and raw as Common Sense’s Clartin. The lyrics, too, frequently suggest a man who’s had a considerable amount of time on his hands with not much to do but think. There’s a lot of contemplative stuff about knowing yourself – “how do you live your life when your life’s a facade?” he ponders, backed by melancholy piano chords, on Deeper Than Rap – and references to a grab-bag of spirituality that ranges from the aforementioned juju to Rastafarian ideas about the “Babylon system”. Then again, not everything on Big Conspiracy deals with an ascetic life of contemplation. There’s a fairly phenomenal amount of shagging involved too, not least on Play Play, his collaboration with Nigerian star Burna Boy.

What hasn’t changed is his ability to switch between an array of musical styles – the Afrobeats-flavoured Love Peace and Prosperity; Repeat’s collaboration with current dancehall queen Koffee; the mesh of live guitar and bass that underpins Helicopter. More impressive still is that the album’s musical transitions never jar. As on his debut, they feel natural and unforced, an expression of growing up in London surrounded by an array of different cultural influences, tied together not just by J Hus’s flow, but his pop smarts – he has an unfailing ability to come up with earworm choruses. The latter skill is among his more overlooked, but it means that no matter how sombre his meditations on race, crime and identity get, virtually everything here feels like a single. The latest one is No Denying, and the ability to make something radio-friendly out of samples of high-tension soundtrack strings, scrabbling sax improv and divebombing bass is not to be sniffed at” – The Guardian

Key Cut: Must Be

Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?

qqqq.jpg

Release Date: 26th June, 2020

Producers: Benji B/James Ford/Joseph Mount/Kindness/Morgan Geist/Matthew Tavares/Midland

Labels: PMR/Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope/Virgin EMI

Standout Tracks: What's Your Pleasure?/Ooh La La/Mirage (Don't Stop)

Review:

“Rhapsodic dancefloor intimacy became a new specialization for Jessie Ware with "Overtime," the first in a wave of tracks the singer released from 2018 up to the June 2020 arrival of What's Your Pleasure?, her fourth album. Other than "Adore You," a chiming glider made with Metronomy's Joseph Mount, each one in the series was either produced or co-produced by James Ford, consolidating and rerouting a partnership that started during the making of Tough Love. Unlike Ford and Ware's collaborations on that 2014 LP, the new material didn't merely simmer. Hottest of all, "Mirage (Don't Stop)" worked a ripe disco-funk groove with Ware's opening line, "Last night we danced, and I thought you were saving my life" -- sighed in a Bananarama cadence -- a sweet everything if there ever was one. The loved-up energy was kept in constant supply with the dashing "Spotlight," the Freeez-meet-Teena Marie-at-Compass-Point bump of "Ooh La La," and the sneaky Euro-disco belter "Save a Kiss." All but "Overtime" are included here. That makes the album somewhat anti-climactic, but there's no sense in complaining when the preceding singles keep giving and the new material is almost always up to the same standard. Among the fresh standouts, the bounding Morgan Geist co-production "Soul Control" and the dashing "Step Into My Life" recontextualize underground club music with as much might and finesse as anything by Róisín Murphy. Stylistic deviations are few, well-placed, and maintain lyrical continuity with references to the senses as they relate to emotional and physical connection. "In Your Eyes" recalls Massive Attack's "Safe from Harm" with its hypnotizing bassline, subtly theatrical strings, and aching (if less desperate) vocal. Moving in gradually intensifying and similarly slow motion, "The Kill" enables Ware to let down her guard for an unassured lover. "Remember Where You Are," a stirring finale, takes a little trip to cherish the daybreak in Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney's chamber folk-soul garden, replete with a goosebump-raising group vocal in the chorus. One can almost smell the baby's breath” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Remember Where You Are

My Pick

 

Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia 

mmm.jpg

Release Date: 27th March, 2020

Producers: Jeff Bhasker/Jason Evigan/KozIan Kirkpatrick/SG Lewis/Lindgren/The Monsters & Strangerz/Stuart Price/Take a Daytrip/TMS/Andrew Watt

Label: Warner Records

Standout Tracks: Don’t Start Now/Physical/Levitate

Review:

“You’ve probably already heard singles “Don’t Start Now” and “Physical” – the new single that drop-kicks the Lycra-bounce of Newton-John’s 1981 hit of the same name into the 21st century. Back in the day, Newton-John was understandably uncomfortable about how her song’s unabashed sexuality – “There’s nothin’ left to talk about unless it’s horizontally” – would affect her good-girl image. Today, Lipa stares straight down the camera at us as she takes charge in her exercise video. “Hi. I’m Dua, and I’ll be your instructor today…” The husky mezzo that kept her out of the school choir (there were tears) is muscular with authority and doesn’t stand for any melismatic shilly-shallying. Each note gets down and gives her 20.

She keeps a leather-driving-gloved command over the wonky synths of “Levitating” and “Hallucinating” and the spacey spangle glitter gel noises of “Cool” – on which she sings of “burning up on you/ In control of what I do/ And I love the way you move.”

It’s invigorating to hear her use samples like barbells – lifting and flexing with them, not dancing around them like ornamental handbags. Best is her use of White Town’s 1997 “Your Woman” on “Love Again” – perhaps the most romantic song we’ve heard to date from a woman whose name actually means “love” in Albanian. White Town’s bedroom-made chart-topper (which itself sampled a 1930s song) was one of the first to flip the singer’s gender (a man sang he would “never be your woman”), and Lipa adds to the sense of head-messing by stirring strings into the mix while confessing she’s sinking her “teeth into disbelief”.

But I also love her use of the sexy-stuttering riff from INXS’s booty-call classic “Need You Tonight” on “Break My Heart”. You can picture whole families dancing to this together as kids’ and parents’ musical coordinates intersect” – The Independent

Key Cut: Break My Heart

Female Solo Artist

eee.png

 

Arlo Parks

w.jpg

Celeste

aaa.jpg

Jessie Ware

qqq.jpg

Lianne La Havas

aaa.jpg

My Pick

 

Dua Lipa

zzz.jpg

Male Solo Artist

zzzz.png

 

AJ Tracey

zzz.jpg

Headie One

q.jpg

Joel Corry

z.jpg

Yungblud

cccc.jpg

My Pick

 

J Hus

aaa.png

British Group

xxx.png

 

Bicep

zzz.jpg

Biffy Clyro

zzzz.jpg

The 1975

ssss.jpg

Young T & Bugsey

aaaaa.jpg

My Pick

 

Little Mix

zzz.jpg

Breakthrough Artist

qqqq.png

 

Bicep

zzz.jpg

Celeste

ddddd.jpg

Joel Corry

zzz.png

Young T & Bugsey

dddgvbggf.jpg

My Pick

 

Arlo Parks

wwaa.png

British Single with Mastercard

 

220 Kid & GRACEY - Don't Need Love

Aitch & AJ Tracey feat. Tay Keith – Rain

Dua Lipa – Physical

Headie One feat. AJ Tracey and Stormzy - Ain't It Different

Joel Corry feat. MNEK - Head & Heart

Nathan Dawe feat. KSI – Lighter

Regard & RAYE – Secrets

S1MBA feat. DTG – Rover

Young T & Bugsey feat. Headie One - Don't Rush

My Pick

 

Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar

International Female Solo Artist

azzz.png

 

Ariana Grande

qqqq.jpg

Billie Eilish

ttt.jpg

Cardi B

a.jpg

Miley Cyrus

jjjj.jpg

My Pick

 

Taylor Swift

zzzz.jpg

International Male Solo Act

za.png

 

Bruce Springsteen

qqqq.jpg

Burna Boy

zaaaa.jpg

Childish Gambino

zaaa.jpg

Tame Impala

azzz.jpg

My Pick

 

The Weeknd

aaaa.jpg

International Group

aaa.png

 

BTS

aaa.jpg

Fontaines D.C.

aaaa.jpg

Foo Fighters

aaaa.jpg

Run The Jewels

aaa.jpg

My Pick

 

HAIM

ooo.jpg

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Forty-Nine: Pet Shop Boys

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

xxx.jpg

 Part Forty-Nine: Pet Shop Boys

___________

I almost forgot about Pet Shop Boys…

ss.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

when continuing with this feature. As they formed in 1981, the duo are celebrating forty years together. If you need some guidance and biography regarding an iconic act, here is some assistance:

“Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo, formed in London in 1981 and consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

“Pet Shop Boys have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, [better source needed] and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records. Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1984 they have achieved 42 Top 30 singles, 22 of them Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, including four UK number ones: "West End Girls" (also number one on the US Billboard Hot 100), "It's a Sin", a synthpop version of "Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of "Go West", and their own "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top ten singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion.

At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2016, Billboard magazine named Pet Shop Boys the number one dance duo/group over the 40 years since the chart's inception in 1976. In 2017, the duo received NME's Godlike Genius Award”.

To celebrate Tennant and Lowe and the terrific music they have released through the years, this A Buyer’s Guide concerns their very best albums, an underrated gem and a Pet Shop Boys book. Have a look and listen of the best work of…

rr.jpg

 PHOTO CREEDIT: Pelle Crépin

A genius duo.

______________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Please

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 24th March, 1986

Labels: Parlophone/EMI America

Producer: Stephen Hague

Standout Tracks: Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)/Suburbia/Violence

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/107872

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0AwBxVtsvLVwmaVwwe5beS?si=ZkU687LURE2-KILgj1ZUdw

Review:

“A collection of immaculately crafted and seamlessly produced synthesized dance-pop, the Pet Shop Boys' debut album, Please, sketches out the basic elements of the duo's sound. At first listen, most of the songs come off as mere excuses for the dancefloor, driven by cold, melodic keyboard riffs and pulsing drum machines. However, the songcraft that the beats support is surprisingly strong, featuring catchy melodies that appear slight because of Neil Tennant's thin voice. Tennant's lyrics were still in their formative stages, with half of the record failing to transcend the formulaic constraints of dance-pop. The songs that do break free -- the intentionally crass "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," the lulling "Suburbia," and the hypnotic "West End Girls" -- are not only classic dance singles, they're classic pop singles” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: West End Girls

Actually

xx.jpg

Release Date: 7th September, 1987

Labels: Parlophone/EMI America

Producers: Stephen Hague/David Jacob/Julian Mendelsohn/Pet Shop Boys/Shep Pettibone/Andy Richards

Standout Tracks: What Have I Done to Deserve This? (with Dusty Springfield)/It’s a Sin/Heart

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=27976&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7hkIf8sKiJKRjADB2xan74?si=EJcOoOuBRsWK1XQAJJv0tw

Review:

“For Tennant especially, Actually was a landmark release, as wry observation became auto biography on ‘Its a Sin’, the words a castigation of the brutality of his religious upbringing, both at the hands of peers and superiors at a catholic school. Elsewhere ‘Shopping’ bore the same intrinsically playful approach to structure as Please’s ‘Two Divided By Zero’, albeit together with a laugh out loud chorus which pegged the nihilistic pursuit of consumption that would become known as retail therapy.

It wasn’t all clipped social commentary however, as their duet with Springfield demonstrated. Stories of the former sixties’ icon cast her as an irascible diva, but ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ more than justified the pursuit, a warmly humanist love song stamped with devotion. Amongst all the loneliness, lust, and loss however its Actually’s prescience that leaves the greatest impression.

To many Northerners, London’s King’s Cross station is a place of entry and exodus, the embarcation point for all those seeking to run away from secrets and regrets in equal measure. Those expecting streets paved with gold soon get the rudest of awakenings in the surrounding area, a twilight world of vice and poverty which Tennant evokes lyrically with skill and chagrin. With Lowe’s technology shrilling with melodrama, the song which bears the station’s name is both desolate and heart-breaking, even more so when only three months after the album’s release a stray match caused the fire there which resulted in the deaths of 31 people.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see how immaculately the duo’s high concept was pulled off, one where Tennant and Lowe both lived the dream but successfully corroded its envelope. Actually was a time bomb, set to explode the moment you woke up realising that your townhouse and BMW were only yours because you were bought and sold just like everything and everyone else. Face value didn’t give this up. But then again this was a record could soundtrack a disco or a riot with equal elegance. And not even London Calling can do that” – The Voice of Unreason

Choice Cut: Rent

Introspective

zzz.jpg

Release Date: 10th October, 1988

Label: Parlophone

Producers: Trevor Horn/David Jacob/Stephen Lipson/Lewis A. Martineé/Julian Mendelsohn/Pet Shop Boys

Standout Tracks: Left to My Own Devices/I’m Not Scared/It’s Alright

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=28151&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5rV1l8OgNRlryYfEzJ2IER?si=_6spR5JFR7CgJ_q7gc9T0Q

Review:

“Featuring a mere six tracks, most of them well over six minutes in length, Introspective was a move back to the clubs for the Pet Shop Boys. Over the course of the album, they incorporated various dance techniques that were currently in vogue, including Latin rhythms and house textures. The title isn't entirely an arch joke, however. Like Actually, Introspective was an exploration of distant, disaffected yuppies, which naturally resulted in a good deal of self-analyzation. Melodically, the essential song structures were as strong and multi-layered as the previous album, yet that was hard to hear beneath the varying rhythmic textures that composed the bulk of each track. Nevertheless, the mixes are more compelling than the remixes on Disco, and the songs include several of their best numbers, including "Left to My Own Devices" and "Domino Dancing," as well as the reconstruction of "Always on My Mind" and a cover of Blaze's club classic, "It's Alright” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Always on My Mind

Very

zzz.png

Release Date: 27th September, 1993

Label: Parlophone

Producers: Pet Shop Boys/Stephen Hague/Brothers in Rhythm

Standout Tracks: Can You Forgive Her?/I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing/Liberation

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=28399&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6isi41U6Wdh0JBglB26rKX?si=zDk53RA8Tgy-x48bMTU2_A

Review:

“But that's very typical of Very. It isn't simply that there's more to these songs than sly wit and catchy choruses (although there are plenty of both); this time around, the Boys appear to have a few axes to grind. Some are obvious enough, like the spiteful satire of musicpress vipers and record-biz sycophants in "Yesterday, When I Was Mad." Or "The Theater," which describes how the well-dressed crowds on their way to the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber hit blithely ignore the street kids crowding the sidewalks of London's East End ("We're the bums you step over as you leave the theatre," spits Tennant's chorus).

Others, though, require a fair amount of interpretation. Take "Dreaming of the Queen," for example. On the surface, it's about a dream in which Tennant takes tea with Queen Elizabeth and Princess Di and ends up realizing that he's forgotten to put on any clothes. But beneath that surface drollery is a touching elegy to the toll AIDS has taken, leaving us trapped in a world where love has died because "there are no more lovers left alive/No one has surprised."

That's not to say that Very is all seriousness and no fun – these are the Pet Shop Boys, after all. But as fun as it is to wade into the tuneful exuberance of pop fare like "One in a Million" or "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," there are deeper pleasures to be had in the mixed emotions conveyed in "To Speak Is a Sin" and "Can You Forgive Her?" And it's that sort of depth that makes Very worth hearing again and again – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Go West

The Underrated Gem

 

Bilingual

zzz.jpg

Release Date: 2nd September, 1996

Label: Parlophone

Producers: Pet Shop Boys/Chris Porter/Paul Roberts/Danny Tenaglia/Andy Williams

Standout Tracks: Single/Electricity/Before

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=28327&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7x4QGVpvnb3NKPdGQzDcsM?si=4RFGTKAVR9ydY4iIXBYlng

Review:

“For the first four seconds of Bilingual, I was convinced it was more of the same synthetic, electroid waste that we're so accustomed to hearing from the Boys. And that's when the strings came in. Of course, they're not real strings, but all the same, the chords played are not your standard danceable, major key chords. It's much darker than that. The drum loops begins its aggressive pounding, and you slowly begin to realize that something's changed with these guys. The song is "Discoteca," and though British dance music doesn't usually keep me interested, this stuff is pretty remarkable. It's the perfect song for a rainy night drive.

"Discoteca" leads nicely into the title cut from the album, which is a great song (if somewhat similar to "Discoteca") except for the chorus which comes along every ten seconds and irritatingly proclaims "I'm single / Bilingual," one of the worst lyrics of all time.

The disc goes all over the place, covering some virtually unexplored territory, and occasionally returns to the mid- '80s vein of hellmusic we love to hate these days. The songs even out pretty well, and I have to say, Bilingual is better than I thought it would be. It's embarrasing to admit to liking this record, but somebody's got to do it. I feel pretty confident there are others just like me out there” – Pitchfork

Choice Cut: Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)

The Latest Album

 

Hotspot

aaa.jpg

Release Date: 24th January, 2020

Label: x2

Producer: Stuart Price

Standout Tracks: You Are the One/Dreamland (featuring Years & Years)/Burning the Heather

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1671997&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ap37NIDZhcgORhznOgSmG?si=UZrNI3kiTXOh0LGqulPOXw

Review:

“While the defining sound is electronic as ever, each track is coloured with a subtly different shade of electro giving a pleasingly diverse dynamic to the record. ‘Will O The Wisp’ is as imposing an opener as they have ever managed with it’s heavy pulsating beats soundtracking an ode to evergreen hedonism in the ‘Left To My Own Devices’ mode. It even features a trademark low key hilarious spoken word bridge that marks it out as a PSB classic. Immediately following is the twinkling beauty of ‘You Are The One’ and it’s this contrast of light and shade that makes ‘Hotspot’ so compelling.

All the hallmarks of prime Pet Shop Boys are present and correct and they have lost none of their wit and piercing lyrical eye. You could imagine the wistful ‘Hoping For A Miracle’ as a subtly damning takedown of the flawed Brexit dream while ‘Dreamland’ in collaboration with Olly Alexander from Years & Years is the kind of up-tempo empowering conscious anthem that they excel at.

The defining characteristic of ‘Hotspot’ is of a more lyrical album and, indeed, the more diverse musical palette including acoustic guitars provided by Bernard Butler and horn solo on single ‘Burning The Heather’ allow for a more ruminative melancholy approach. After every big night on the dancefloor you always need a comedown to reflect. The HI-NRG fevered pop of tracks like ‘Happy People’ and the playful ‘Monkey Business’ though show that Tennant and Lowe have lost none of their capacity for dancefloor exuberance but with this album they’ve perfected their journey of the last decade of connecting with their musical past while pointing a way towards the future” – CLASH

Choice Cut: Monkey Business

The Pet Shop Boys Book

 

Pet Shop Boys, Literally

xxx.jpg

Author: Chris Heath

Publication Date: 19th March, 2020

Publisher: William Heinemann

Synopsis:

“The Pet Shop Boys are one of the most successful and unusual bands of the last five decades. They are the pop duo that proves pop music can be modern, ecstatic and playful as well as serious and intelligent, winning them legions of devoted fans throughout the world.

In 1989, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe invited journalist Chris Heath and photographer Lawrence Watson to shadow them around Hong Kong, Japan and the UK as they embarked on their first-ever tour. This book is the result: an immersive portrait giving access into the duo’s inner sanctum, showing them in brilliantly observed detail as they work, relax, gossip, argue and occasionally try to make sense of what they do.

‘As clear a picture as could be wished for of the seething mass of elegant contradictions that is the

Pet Shop Boys’ on-the-road experience.’ Independent on Sunday

‘This superbly reported book transcends tired rock journalism cliché. It’s about what it means to be a pop star, what it means to be a Pet Shop Boy… how to love pop, hold it to a higher standard and subvert its expectations.’ Laura Snapes” – Penguin

Order: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1118506/pet-shop-boys--literally/9781785152368.html

FEATURE: Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure: Journey - Don't Stop Believin'

FEATURE:

 

 

Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure

xxx.jpg

Journey - Don't Stop Believin'

___________

I have seen this song appear…

aaa.jpg

on more than one list that names so-called ‘guilty pleasure’ songs. I am not someone who feels any song should be viewed as a guilty pleasure. Whilst I am not a massive fan of Journey’s 1981 hit, Don’t Stop Believin’, it is a track that has more than its fair share of fans! Despite some feeling it is a little embarrassing embracing a song like this, I think that it is an anthem of the 1980s. Even though I am not enamoured of it, it has gained quite a legacy. Here is some details about a huge track:

“Don't Stop Believin'" is a song by American rock band Journey, originally released as the second single from their seventh album, Escape (1981). It became a number 9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on its original release after entering the chart at position 56 on October 31, 1981. In the United Kingdom, the song was not a top 40 hit on its original release, but it reached number 6 in 2010 following the popularity of a cover version by the cast of the American comedy-drama Glee.

Mike DeGagne of AllMusic has described "Don't Stop Believin'" as a "perfect rock song" and an "anthem", featuring "one of the best opening keyboard riffs in rock." It is the best-selling digital track from the 20th century, with over 7 million copies sold in the United States”.

Taken from the underrated 1981 album, Escape, I think one of the reasons Don’t Stop Believin’ has acquired a bit of a bad rap is that it has appeared on shows like Glee and The X Factor. The song is perfect for a Pop wannabe to belt during an audition. I guess it is a shame that, in some ways, the track has been associated with certain shows – though they themselves are popular, so I can’t knock them too much. Maybe it was good to get the song heard again, as Journey’s biggest hit has dipped in and out of popular culture through the decades. In 2010, The Guardian talked about a power ballad that has refused to die:

“When was the last time you heard Don't Stop Believin'? Was it on the radio or in the pub? At a festival or a wedding? Was it sung by Journey themselves, the cast of Glee, a fan on YouTube, a choir of schoolchildren or a drunk friend on a karaoke machine? Boxfresh pop songs such as Tinie Tempah's Pass Out might have a decent claim on being the sound of Britain in 2010 but nothing has wriggled its way into every corner of the culture quite like a slow-burning power ballad that's about to celebrate its 30th birthday.

It was a song inspired by failure. Journey started life as a jazz-rock band in San Francisco in 1973, but they were floundering and hitless when, four years later, they recruited singer Steve Perry, who was having little luck himself. Their fortunes drastically improved, but the sentiments of Don't Stop Believin' harked back to the lean years. Before keyboardist Jonathan Cain joined in 1980, he was also struggling while living on LA's Sunset Boulevard. Each time he called home in despair, his dad would tell him: "Don't stop believing or you're done, dude."

xx.jpg

INTHIS PHOTO: Journey photographed in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Putland/Getty Images

The song was written backwards. Cain had nothing but the climactic chorus when he brought the stub of a song to Perry and guitarist Neal Schon, and they worked together on how to get to that moment. They all liked the concept of two lovers fleeing their hometowns by train (a reverse homage to Gladys Knight's Midnight Train to Georgia), and Cain told Perry about his time in LA, hence the "strangers waiting up and down the boulevard" line. "I [saw] that every night in Hollywood," Cain told The Mix magazine. "People coming to LA looking for their dream. We felt that every young person has a dream and sometimes where you grow up isn't where you're destined to be."

In Britain, Don't Stop Believin' flopped, despite being Kerrang!'s single of the year for 1982. In the US, however, it was a substantial hit, the first of many from 1981's multi-platinum Escape album. "Everyone in an American high school in the early 80s probably had a Journey cassette," says Brian Raftery, author of Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life. "But then in the early 90s all the cheesy 80s music got rejected and it basically disappeared. Journey were seen as the kind of overblown arena act that grunge and hip-hop were meant to obliterate."

According to Will Byers, a music teacher and former host of the Guardian's School of Rock blog, the structure is the key. Yes, Cain's opening piano chords are potent – as Australian comedy trio Axis of Awesome have demonstrated in a much-watched clip, it's the same chord sequence (I, V, vi, IV) that appears in Take On Me, Under the Bridge, You're Beautiful and Let It Be, the minor vi adding just a touch of yearning. And yes, as Byers points out, each new guitar chord appears on the last quaver of the bar, giving the song an extra push. But these are common strategies. It's the slow burn that makes Don't Stop Believin' so unusually compelling.

"Over time, we learn to appreciate these songs that don't offload all they've got in the first minute – Elton John's Tiny Dancer being another one," says Byers. "You invest some emotion in bothering to listen all the way through”.

I think that Don’t Stop Believin’, like so many tracks at the moment, has lyrics and a general feel that can help and comfort people. That sense of self-belief and hope is a powerful tool at a very difficult time! One can see why it has been used to soundtrack good and positive change. In an article from 2019, NPR highlighted some positives; how the song has been used widely over the years:

“Thirty-eight years after it debuted on the album Escape, "Don't Stop Believin'" is the go-to anthem for perseverance that has itself persevered, successfully riding wave after new wave of media. Though born in the era of rock radio and cassette mixtapes, the song found its real glory at the dawn of binge TV and the smartphone, and it has woven its way into weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, the 2005 World Series, The Sopranos and Glee.

By the late 1990s, Perry had left Journey, and the band's career was in the wilderness. But the requests for "Don't Stop Believin'" kept coming.

Charlize Theron roller-skated to the song in her Oscar-winning turn as a serial killer in 2003's Monster. Four years later, The Sopranos ended its pioneering six-season run on HBO with — spoiler alert — a tense sequence involving a diner and parallel parking, soundtracked by "Don't Stop Believin'." Downloads of the track on iTunes soared. In 2009, the earnest high school show choir on Glee covered the song for the first of several times throughout the series' run, sending its download numbers through the roof again.

xxx.jpg

 "Don't Stop Believin'" has been heard on Scrubs, South Park and Family Guy. A string ensemble played it in the Adam Sandler comedy The Wedding Singer. It was the rally song for the Chicago White Sox in the team's 2005 World Series run, and it was the climax of the hit Broadway jukebox musical Rock of Ages. On social media, you can find plenty of photos of stop signs playfully defaced with the title exhortation.

In 2007, Journey flew him to the U.S. for a tryout and hired him — a fairy-tale story chronicled in the 2009 documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey.

Pineda told CBS News in 2012, "Even before I discovered 'Don't Stop Believin,' it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I've gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life."

As for Frost — the critic who originally panned Escape in Rolling Stone — she tells NPR that four decades later she's still not a fan but that maybe those streetlight people might — might — have a point.

"You know, I think maybe it helps them celebrate their high school years — or their hopes," she says. "And if it does, what can I tell you? Good for them”.

I think that Don’t Stop Believin’ is one of those songs that will divide people but, far from being a guilty pleasure, it has provided guidance and positivity to many people. The fact it has been used on T.V. shows and films proves it has currency and cultural appeal. I wonder how people will mark forty years of the song at the end of October. I might warm to it by then but, whilst it is not among my favourite tracks, it definitely delivers energy and a catchy chorus! I suppose we do not have bands like Journey anymore; the song is very much a product of the 1980s. Perhaps it is not a song that can age brilliantly because of that but, as we are living through a dark time, the open and no-specific lyrics can be applied to the way we can break through and find some hope at the end of the tunnel! Simply because of that, Don’t Stop Believin’ deserves some respect. Even if you think the song cannot burrow its way into the brain, you only need to spin it once or twice before its big chorus and riffs…

GET stuck in your head.

FEATURE: Now THAT’S What I Call Music! Why the Decades-Running Compilation Series Still Fascinates Me

FEATURE:

 

 

Now THAT’S What I Call Music!

xxx.jpg

Why the Decades-Running Compilation Series Still Fascinates Me

___________

ALTHOUGH this is not the first time…

fff.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa appears three times on the latest NOW That's What I Call Music

I have talked about the NOW That's What I Call Music series, I love the fact that  it has been nearly thirty-eight years since the original compilation arrived. For music lovers who were around then, seeing an advert for that first compilation must have been exciting:

“Now That's What I Call Music (also simply titled Now or Now 1) is the first album from the popular Now! series that was released in the United Kingdom on 28 November 1983. Initial pressings were released on vinyl and audio cassette. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album and series, the album was re-released on CD for the first time in 2009. Alternative longer mixes of "Only for Love", "Double Dutch" and "Candy Girl" were included in place of the original shorter single mixes from 1983.[1] A double vinyl re-release followed for Record Store Day on 18 April 2015. In July 2018, the album was newly remastered and re-released on CD, vinyl and cassette to commemorate the release of the 100th volume of the series.

In December 1983, the compilation debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and reached number one a week later, staying at the top for five non-consecutive weeks”.

I will come onto the latest incarnation in the long-running series in a minute. I think one of the beautiful things about a now NOW That's What I Call Music album is that there is a nice spread of music; some of the best tracks from that year can be heard. Whilst, perhaps, the series leans towards Pop, I don't think that is always the case.

I have been a little out of the loop regarding NOW That's What I Call Music over the past few years. I have got back into this in the past week because of a tweet I saw from Mark Savage. Dua Lipa appears on the latest  NOW That's What I Call Music three times. Not only is she well represented but, in terms of the quality of music on it, I think it is very broad and interesting. Have a look at the great tracks on the latest album and go and buy it if you can. I am so interested in NOW That's What I Call Music because it a snapshot of a year, and it is curious to look at how the series has progressed through the years and how tastes have changed. Whilst the series might not be for everyone, I think we all have a number in the series that is particularly good. For me, number twenty-four of 1993 is the very best. I recall buying that album on cassette when it came out and marvelling at all the chart hits packed together! I feel that it can be hard to get in top of what is popular and all the great Pop around. There will always be detractors who dislike the mainstream sound of the compilation series and the fact that it rarely touches on genres like Rap, Hip-Hop, Rock and Indie.

I do think that the series offers a lot to music fans, though I feel that there is opportunity, like there has been in the past, to do genre-specific NOW That's What I Call Music albums. At a time when music is so broad and inventive, maybe focusing on Pop is to restrictive. That being said, the names on the one-hundred-and-eighth NOW That's What I Call Music cover a wide spectrum - and there are plenty of tracks to get your teeth into! One important thing to note is that, alongside the current NOW That's What I Call Music is being offered with an older album in the series. This article explains more:

“Music has remained a constant in these rollercoaster times, continuing to be played loudly and proudly. The pandemic has seen growth in the recorded music industry and NOW That’s What I Call Music! 108 features the biggest chart-topping hits the nation just can’t get enough of.

As a bonus, NOW That’s What I Call Music! 8 is being re-released for the first-time since 1986, full of classic sing-along hits, still as popular today as they were 35 years ago.

Included in NOW 108, the first numbered compilation of the year, is Disney star Olivia Rodrigo with her chart-topping single drivers license, the longest running UK number 1 debut single in 15 years; Dua Lipa’s We’re Good and Harry Style’s Golden both 2021 Grammy winners for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance respectively. Joining them on this jam-packed compilation is Billie Eilish’s Therefore I Am, Miley Cyrus’ Midnight Sky along with Anne-Marie x KSI x Digital Farm Animals’ Don’t play.

Now That’s What I Call Music! 8, first released in 1986, is a time capsule of some of the finest eighties tracks to sing along to, it captures a time when the chart was a musical mix and legends were born. Taking us on a journey back to the eighties the compilation includes, Duran Duran’s Notorious, RUN DMC feat. Aerosmith’s Walk This Way and Grace Jones’ I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You), as well as; The Communards With Sarah Jane Morris’ Don't Leave Me This Way, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush’s Don't Give Up and Cameo’s classic hit Word Up!

Whether your preference is for Miley Cyrus, the Pet Shop Boys, Kim Wilde or Harry Styles NOW That’s What I Call Music has the perfect soundtrack for spring days and Easter holidays!”.

The fact that people will be able to experience brand new hits and then travel back in time and match that against some classics is a good idea. I know one can buy most of the NOW That's What I Call Music on C.D., but I wonder whether many exist on tape. Many of the older compilations on that format must be worth a fortune now! I actually think that launching them all on cassette (and maybe vinyl) would spark a lot of interest. I could handpick a few in the series that I’d keep on cassette as a memento and then have a couple of vinyl I played regularly. You can listen to most of the series on streaming services – in most cases, someone has produced the playlist rather than it being an official release -, but I think that the listening experience one can only get with physical formats means the songs come alive more! Many wonder why a series like NOW That's What I Call Music is still popular when we stream so much…and the charts don’t have the same impact as they used to. I think people have an appetite for complications because it is broader than a normal album, plus you get all of these great tracks in one place. You could stream them all, sure. Having them on album means you can revisit and keep that album for years to come! I hope that those who produce NOW That's What I Call Music will think about releasing all of the series on cassette and vinyl. I think you can get most of the series via Amazon, though an official store with all of them available would be better. After all of these years, the phenomenal NOW That's What I Call Music series…

CONTINUES to burn bright!

FEATURE: My (Your) Song: The Hit Songwriters Asking Pop Artists to Stop Taking Credit for Tracks They Did Not Write

FEATURE:

 

 

My (Your) Song

zzz.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Victoria Monét is among a group of hit-making songwriters who have signed an open letter asking artists to stop taking credit for songs they didn't write

The Hit Songwriters Asking Pop Artists to Stop Taking Credit for Tracks They Did Not Write

___________

I was intrigued by an article…

qqq.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Songwriter Justin Tranter/PHOTO CREDIT: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

that I saw on the BBC website on Wednesday. I have been thinking a lot about musicians and how hard the pandemic has been for them with no gigs and limited revenue. When it comes to streaming payment, it is harder than ever to get what is ‘owed’ and make any sort of living from it. I think that songwriters have it even harder. Not only are they some of the great names behind big artists; they are often not credited for their work and have to live in the shadows. That might be about to change:

“Some of pop's biggest hitmakers are asking artists to stop taking credit for songs they didn't write.

In an open letter, the writers behind songs like Dua Lipa's New Rules and Ariana Grande's 7 Rings said "a growing number of artists" were demanding a share of publishing royalties, even if they had contributed nothing to a song.

"These artists will go on to collect revenue from touring, merchandise [and] brand partnerships," they said, but "songwriters have only their publishing revenue as a means of income"

They added that composers were often subjected to "bully tactics and threats" by artists and executives who wanted to take a share of the songwriting royalties.

The letter was organised by a new advocacy group calling itself The Pact. Signatories included Justin Tranter, Emily Warren, Ross Golan, Amy Allen, Savan Kotecha, Joel Little and Victoria Monét.

Between them, they have created hit records for the likes of Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, One Direction, Michael Bublé, Lorde, Shawn Mendes and Selena Gomez - although the letter was not directed at any specific artists.

qqq.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Shawn Mendes 

"Over time, this practice of artists taking publishing has become normalised; and until now, there has been no real unity within the songwriting community to fight back," they wrote.

"That is why we have decided to join together, in support of each other, and make a change."

The letter addresses a music industry practice that dates back to Elvis Presley, whose manager Colonel Tom Parker often insisted on his client receiving a co-writing credit on the songs he recorded.

Many composers acquiesced, using the logic that the money earned from 50% of an Elvis record would be higher than 100% of the same song, recorded by a less well-known artist.

Over time, the idea became so commonplace that it spawned a phrase: "Change a word, get a third" (as in, one slight tweak to the lyrics can get you a third of the royalties).

Until now, writers have been reluctant to speak publicly about the issue, in case it harms their careers”.

There is this notion that, when it comes to certain artists, there is this army of songwriters. There are a lot of tracks where an artist has a writing credit when they didn’t do much, or else there is an army of writers when fewer could have done. I have a lot of sympathy for songwriters who have been afraid to speak out or have had to struggle for credit. I can see why artists would want publishing royalties at a time when there is no touring revenue available. I don’t think that is what is happening. Rather than it being greed, I feel a lot of artists want to be seen as songwriters and being part of the mix - maybe so they can be taken more seriously. In other cases, there is a lack of respect and the feeling that the songwriters are a tiny cog in the machine.

xxx.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Fiona Bevan

Not only has this watershed moment come when songwriters are demanding their just dues; many songwriters are struggling to make ends meet. Another BBC article that appeared late last year gave us an insight into how pronounced the problem is:

“The songwriters behind some of the UK's biggest hit singles "are driving Ubers" to make ends meet, MPs have been told.

Fiona Bevan, who has written songs for One Direction, Steps and Lewis Capaldi, said many writers were struggling because of the way streaming services pay royalties.

Bevan revealed she had earned just £100 for co-writing a track on Kylie Minogue's number one album, Disco.

"The most successful songwriters in the world can't pay their rent," she added.

"Right now, hit songwriters are driving Ubers. It's quite shameful."

Bevan was giving evidence to a digital, culture, media and sport select committee inquiry into the economics of streaming, which now accounts for more than three-quarters of music industry income in the UK.

MPs heard from musicians including Chic's Nile Rodgers and saxophonist Soweto Kinch, as well as music managers Maria Forte and Kwame Kwaten.

Rodgers said he hadn't looked into his streaming income before the Covid-19 pandemic "because my tour revenue has been so substantial that I could support my entire organisation".

After looking into the figures this year, he was "completely shocked".

Not only should streaming sites change their models so that songwriters get a bigger slice of revenue and are in the conversation. I think that this issue where artists are taking credit and songwriters are having to voice their concerns means that there needs to be a change. I wonder how often many of us think about the people who write some of the biggest hits and a lot of the songs we love. They only have publishing revenue so, when one thinks that this is being taken away to an extent, it does make for shocking reading. It looks like things could change. This is a good thing, as it would allow these important songwriters to get the…

xxx.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: @fotografierende/Unsplash

FULL credit and income they deserve.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Du Blonde

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

xxx.jpg

Du Blonde

___________

THIS feature is being written…

xxx.jpg

on 27th March. In six days, the new album from Du Blonde, Homecoming, arrives. Whilst I am not publishing this feature for a few more days, there are no reviews available at the time that I can bring in for the album – though I will provide a link where you can buy the album. Du Blonde is an artist that I really like and have been following for a little bit. Beth Jeans Houghton (a.k.a. Du Blonde) is a Newcastle upon Tyne-born multi-disciplinary musician, composer, artist, animator and video director. I really love her work and the fact that she has her own sense of style and this multi-discipline approach. A fantastic artist, creator and visionary, I think that Du Blonde is going to be a huge star of the future. If you have not bought Homecoming then go and order a copy and experience a tremendous artist:

“Du Blonde is back with new album Homecoming and with it, her own record label, clothing brand and all-round art house Daemon T.V. Written, recorded and produced by Du Blonde (aka Beth Jeans Houghton), Homecoming is a refreshing taste of pop-grunge finery, featuring guests including Shirley Manson, Ezra Furman, Andy Bell (Ride/Oasis), The Farting Suffragettes, and members of Girl Ray and Tunng among others.

The album began as a few songs hashed out on a porch in LA in early 2020, and as Houghton’s desire to create something self-made and self-released merged with the then incoming pandemic. Admirers of Du Blonde’s previous two studio albums (2015’s Welcome Back to Milk and 2019’s Lung Bread for Daddy) might be surprised to find that Homecoming takes on the form of a pop record. The garage rock, grunge and metal guitar licks that have come to define Du Blonde are still there in spades, but as a whole the direction of the album is pop through and through. Houghton’s freak flag is still flying high however, a fact that’s no more apparent than on ‘Smoking Me Out’, a bizarre mash up of 80’s shock rock, metal and 60’s pop group harmonies. This defiant and energetic attitude can be heard throughout Homecoming, whether writing about her medication (30mg of citalopram, once a day), her queerness on 'I Can’t Help You There' (“I’ve been a queen, I’ve been a king, and still I don’t fit in”), to the joyous and manic explosion of 'Pull The Plug' (“say that I’m deranged, but I’ve been feeling more myself than ever”), Houghton is nothing if not herself, full force and unapologetic in her approach to writing, playing and recording her music”.

As I cannot find many recent interviews with Du Blonde, I am going to look bac at the previous album, 2019’s Lung Bread for Daddy, and an interesting interview from that time. It is a remarkable album that I am keen to bring to focus and source a review about. Before then, DIY spotlighted Beth Jeans Houghton and we learn more about her start and progress:

“First entering the public eye in the late ‘00s with folk-tinged project Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny, the then-teenage singer inked a deal before releasing debut ‘Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose’ in 2012 to a slew of praise, thus declaring her a kind of Florence Welch in Wonderland figure. When she resurfaced three years later with a different name, a new meaty, riffy sound and wearing nothing but a fur coat and fluffy merkin on the cover of (truly excellent) second LP ‘Welcome Back to Milk’ then, it’s fair to say that people were slightly surprised. But, explains Beth, her output had been playing catch up for a while by that point.

“I had a lot of frustration after the first record. I loved it and I’m glad I did it and I stand by it all, but I wrote those tracks when I was 16, recorded them between 16 and 18 and then released them when I was 21. So it’s the difference between being a young teenager and a young adult,” she explains. “I’d changed so much and I felt that, even though people were reacting well to the record, it wasn’t me. That was the main thing about [starting this project], thinking, I’m gonna make what I wanna make finally. Something simpler, with more blunt lyrics, where I can call a spade a spade.”

ccc.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Smithies for DIY 

Informed by a nomadic lifestyle spent in and out of LA, where she “never really lived anywhere for more than a couple of months,” that first Du Blonde record rings with big yet consistently surprising melodies and a feeling of exploration. “Having a different name means I can walk out on stage and whatever I do, that’s Du Blonde and then I can go home and be Beth and be my weird self,” she says of the change in thinking. Yet ‘Lung Bread for Daddy’ seems to go a fair way to bridging the gap between the two sides of the now-29-year-old. It’s a record that’s artistically full of life yet underpinned with a strain of darkness and vulnerability - much like a conversation with Beth herself.

But there’s a relatable sense of doubt and honesty beneath the seeming self-confidence (“I’m not as extroverted as I seem...” she chuckles at that assessment) that makes Du Blonde a far more empathetic author than on first merkin-clad glance. Take new track ‘Holiday Resort’, in which, over fuzzy, simply-strummed chords she sings “Spoke to my doctor, he said I’m past my peak / All my eggs are dying, in my twenties I’m antique”. “My mum owned her house when she was 21 on the wage that she made, and I think, well what the fuck am I doing?!” she says of the track. “But then you look around and everybody else is like that too.” Shortly after in the track, meanwhile, she serves up a natty one-liner about sitting in her room “pulling pubic hairs from the crotch of [her] swimming costume”. It is, we note, kind of brilliantly disgusting. “But that’s what my life is!” she laughs. “I’ve always felt like the more open I can be about gross stuff, the less I feel worried about it. In all of my relationships, I’ve had a real issue with shitting near the other person if I know that they’ll hear it or smell it, to the point where I’ll be constipated for a week. But then my last boyfriend, I accidentally farted in front of him a couple of times and he didn’t give a shit. I felt so free! I accidentally shat myself in front of him because I had sepsis and I didn’t care! If you can either find people who are OK with you being human, or you can just be like ‘I am human’ then that’s so freeing”.

Before concluding, I want to bring in a positive review for Du Blonde’s previous album. Lung Bread for Daddy is a tremendous album that everyone should listen to. Whilst I feel Homecoming is a slightly stronger record, Lung Bread for Daddy is magnificent. This is what AllMusic wrote when they sat down with the album:

“Whether working as Du Blonde or under her given name, Beth Jeans Houghton pours all of herself into her music, and never more so than on Lung Bread for Daddy. On Du Blonde's second album, Houghton takes full creative control -- from songwriting to production to the self-portrait that graces the cover -- on a set of songs about losing control and getting it back. Written and recorded after she sought help for her lifelong anxiety and depression in early 2018, Lung Bread for Daddy finds her crawling back from the bottom, leaving behind old lovers, old worries, and old identities (Houghton is non-binary). Her hard-earned victories are reflected in the album's world-weary yet liberated vibe and, especially, in the roughness of her voice. She peels paint from the walls with the scream that punctuates "Coffee Machine"; rasps out confessions like "All my eggs are dying/In my twenties, I'm antique" on "Holiday Resort"; and crows about the end of a bad relationship on "Angel," where her elation is echoed by a heroic guitar solo. Moments like these wouldn't have been possible without Welcome to Back to Milk, which began the shift from the ethereal folk-psych-pop of Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny to the grittier world of Du Blonde.

While "Baby Talk"'s bluesy wallop echoes the Milk highlight "Black Flag," on Daddy, Houghton discovers more organic ways of integrating the theatricality of her older work with the bluntness of her newer persona. She evokes Hole's and Liz Phair's defiance and anthemically grungy chords on "Take Out Chicken," then makes them weird on "Peach Meat," adding lurid synth strings and samples that magnify the unease when she intones, "you're very kind and you're very bad." Later, "RBY," a soundtrack-worthy power ballad from beyond the grave, exploits the syrupy melodies of early-'70s AM pop and glam rock's majestic guitars for all they're worth. Here and throughout the album, Houghton's songwriting is more vivid than ever. On her previous albums, her way with words frequently took second or third place to her powerhouse vocals and musicianship, but on Lung Bread for Daddy, it's a vital part of the album's power. Her kiss-off to an ex on "Acetone" is equally clever and cathartic ("Though you tried to make a mark/You only loved me in the dark/I'll wash it off in a bath of blood and acetone"); on "On the Radio," she finds poetry in a doomed relationship ("I don't seem to suit you/But you still want to try me on and see"). Calling this Houghton's most consistent album undersells it -- the way every part of Lung Bread for Daddy comes together to create a ragged but ultimately uplifting self-portrait of Du Blonde makes for thrilling listening”.

The incredible Du Blonde is releasing so much fantastic music right now. Go and get her Homecoming album and bond with one of the finest and most promising artists in Britain. I think that Beth Jeans Houghton is such a huge talent and we will hear so many more albums from her. As Du Blonde, we have this incredible moniker that is making…

SOME of the best music of the moment.

_____________

Follow Du Blonde

rrr.jpg

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Jeff Porcaro's Best Beats

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

d.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Figen 

Jeff Porcaro's Best Beats

___________

NO stranger to a birthday Lockdown Playlist…

zzz.jpg

I am featuring a musician that many people might not be aware of. One of my favourite drummers, Jeff Porcaro, sadly died in 1992. As today (1st April) would have been his sixty-seventh birthday, I wanted to include some of his best performances on record. In terms of bonding with the drums, Porcaro started early:

“Jeffrey Thomas “Jeff” Porcaro was the first-born to jazz drumming great Joe Porcaro, and the eldest brother to Toto’s bassist Mike Porcaro and pianist Steve Porcaro. Jeff Porcaro was born to a family with strong bounds to music and percussion. His grandfather was a snare drummer in an Italian symphonic band – a type of band that used to march in the street – and his uncle, Emil Richards, played with a local orchestra in Connecticut.

Jeff Porcaro began playing seriously with seven years of age, having Joe Porcaro as his teacher. In fact, his brothers were being taught how to play drums by Joe Porcaro at the exact same time as Jeff Porcaro. The three Porcaro boys went with Joe Porcaro to the drum shop he taught at on the weekends, to get their drum lessons. Joe Porcaro would give them drum lessons whenever he found some free time from his regular students. Joe Porcaro taught Jeff Porcaro how to play drums until he was eleven years old. Interestingly enough, Jeff Porcaro was not the best drummer among the Porcaros.

“My brother Mike was much better on the drums than I was, who switched to bass and Steve took up piano prior to our move to California.” – Interview to Modern Drummer Magazine, February 1983 Issue.

It is amazing to think of all the terrific artists Porcaro has worked with through the years. I can guarantee that, at some point, you have heard his drumming work!

“Besides his work with Toto, he was also a highly sought session musician. Porcaro collaborated with many of the biggest names in music, including George Benson, Tommy Bolin, Larry Carlton, Eric Carmen, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Christopher Cross, Miles Davis, Dire Straits, Donald Fagen, Stan Getz, David Gilmour, James Newton Howard, Al Jarreau, Elton John, Leo Sayer, Greg Lake, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul McCartney, Michael McDonald, Bee Gees, Sérgio Mendes, Jim Messina, Pink Floyd, Lee Ritenour, Diana Ross, Boz Scaggs, Seals and Crofts, Bruce Springsteen, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, Richard Marx, Don Henley, David Foster, Donna Summer, Frankie Valli and Joe Walsh. Porcaro contributed drums to four tracks on Michael Jackson's Thriller and also played on the Dangerous album hit "Heal the World". He also played on 10cc's ...Meanwhile (1992). On the 1993 10cc Alive album, recorded after his death, the band dedicated "The Night That the Stars Didn't Show" to him”.

To give a nod to the prolific and exceptional drummer, this Lockdown Playlist features some great Jeff Porcaro beats. Whilst he might not have been the most original drummer, I think that he is one of the most skilful and memorable. As it is his birthday, I wanted to bring together a selection of songs that shows the great man…

IN his element.

FEATURE: Flying By the Seat of Her Pants: Kate Bush’s Sat in Your Lap at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

Flying By the Seat of Her Pants

xxx.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios  

Kate Bush’s Sat in Your Lap at Forty

___________

PILFERING and pillaging the pages…

xx.jpg

of MOJO’s recent edition where Kate Bush features heavily, I was interested in their feature about Sat in Your Lap. There are a couple of other aspects I want to dive deep into when it comes to that MOJO spread but, as The Dreaming’s lead single is forty on 21st June, it is worth exploring it a bit. In the feature where Victoria Segal interviewed some of the people in Bush’s team. In the video for Sat in Your Lap, as Segal notes, she is on the shoulders of a roller-skating minotaur (as you do!). She looks shaky and precarious. Some may interpret that vision as the singer being unsure and teetering but, as was noted, Sat in Your Lap was Bush “seizing the reins of her work with new intent: a song about the search for knowledge, the battle between hubris, self-sabotage and despair”. Although The Dreaming was not released until 1982, its opening single came over a year before the album arrived. Today, this sort of things would be rare but, perhaps feeling that some would feel Bush had disappeared if she had left too big a pause between singles – her third album, Never for Ever, came out in 1980; hardly a lifetime to wait is two years! -, the single bursts with energy and new-found knowledge. The song was written after Bush watched Stevie Wonder in concert at Wembley. She had writer’s block to that point so, maybe, she wanted the song out there because it captured a moment where she was freed and alive with this fresh impetus and direction!

It might have been quite a bolt of lightning for people in 1981. Though previous singles like Babooshka had raw vocals and a strange majesty, the tribal drums and bolder nature of Sat in Your Lap was a preface to the transformation we hear on The Dreaming. Rather than there being this similarly frantic and jester-like energy in the studio, rather splendidly, each morning there was two large bars of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and some weed ready. Not the subscribed diet for a talented singer but, in order to add some phlegm and gravel to her voice, chocolate (and milk) did help that. Bush was no stranger to weed prior to Sat in Your Lap. Smoking it recreationally, it no doubt helped calm her. Bush wanted to create a shock and shake herself at the same time. Sat in Your Lap, in a way, closed the door on her earlier sound where she was less of an integral part of the machine. She was now emerging as a producer in her own right who was taking back some form of control over her creative direction. The Dreaming was recorded at several studios around London, though Townhouse Studios was a sacred space where the likes of Peter Gabriel had recorded. His third eponymous album of 1980 was recorded there (in addition to Manor Mobile, Bath). The drums sound that can be heard on, among other songs, Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight, was brewed in the studio’s ‘stone room’.

lll.jpeg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport Photography

Bush was definitely intrigued and felt that that sort of sound could benefit her music. Bush met engineer Hugh Padgham when she was singing backing vocals on Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers (from the aforementioned album). She wanted him to engineer The Dreaming. Padgham spent some weekends on the album but, busy with other albums, he suggested instead that Nick Launay take over. As the article explores, Launay had worked with Public Image Ltd. and, as a fan of the rhythms of Flowers of Romance, Bush needed little convincing. It is interesting to read Launay was only twenty when he started working with her (she was twenty-two). Because there was no strict budget for studio time and recording, the eager and excited young engineer and artist were sort of flying by the seat of their pants. Padgham laughed when interviewed and explained how “I’d probably be more tolerant of that now than I was then”. Maybe it was a release from the years of working with other producers and not having a tremendous amount of personal freedom when it came to decision and recording. Bush had had a busy and tiring past few years and, with a new song in her mind and a chance for her to produce alone, one can forgive her for not having a set plan and wanting to play around a bit and experiment. Despite the impression that Bush was quite laidback at the time, she wanted her musicians to be in the studio by ten in the morning on a Sunday.

As keyboardist Geoff Downes remarked: “She really wanted to be ahead of the game technologically as much as she was artistically”. He was asked to provide ‘stabbing horn part's’. Not that Bush was limited or conventional prior to 1981. The fact is that there are a lot of great and disparate sounds that go into the collage that is Sat in Your Lap. Rather than being this hippy chick that many in the media had her pegged at around the time of The Kick Inside and Lionheart (in 1978), Bush was now entering a new phase. That said, as Segal observed, lyrics such as “Give me karma, mama!” suggested Bush had not entirely abandoned her past. Engineer Nick Launay felt that going into the studio each day was like being in a fantasy land. With technology like the Fairlight CMI offering new avenues and possibilities, it must have been a dream having this sort of equipment at  the fingertips!  There are contrasts and dichotomies through Sat in Your Lap. The duality of laziness and forward motion sits with “high-end technology and post-punk wilderness”. Though there were probably designs to have The Dreaming ready for release in 1981, sessions did drag - and it was not until September 1982 that it emerged. One can also forgive that as Bush was producing alone and two years between albums is hardly that long! The results were more than worth the wait. Maybe she had set the bar high and was taking on a lot, but one only needs to listen to Sat in Your Lap – with its unconventional piano and percussion rhythms and Fairlight CMI – to realise that Bush…

HAD struck a golden vein.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Sofia Kourtesis

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

aaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Bouchard 

Sofia Kourtesis

___________

I am going to give a quick background…

zzz.jpg

regarding the extraordinary Sofia Kourtesis and her music. I am going to focus more on her new E.P., Fresia Magdalena, as it is a phenomenal work – and one that, I think, warrants more investigation and critical reviews. Even though Kourtesis has been on the scene for a bit, I think her latest E.P. is a real revelation and deceleration of intent! She is definitely being championed as a huge future talent. This is what The Guardian wrote last year:

“Listen to the opening number of the Peruvian-born producer Sofia Kourtesis’s first, self-titled EP, and you imagine a train made of rackety sonic junk clattering down a track. Its destination? A good time, surely: while her brand of house may be arrestingly distinct, clicking and juddering with distorted vocals and fragments of field recordings, she always keeps her eyes firmly on the dancefloor rather than the navel.

Kourtesis, who is based in Berlin, started out in a hip-hop band at 18 (“We were really bad”) before migrating to the mixing deck after meeting her now ex-partner Derwin Schlecker, AKA Gold Panda, and later becoming a booker for clubs including Berlin’s Funkhaus. Released last year by Studio Barnhus, the eclectic Stockholm-based dance label, the EP won glowing reviews (Pitchfork called it “magical”)”.

I want to travel back and head to 2015. Even then, we were getting blooms and flames from the incredible talent. When she spoke with Earmilk, we learned more about her stunning E.P., This Is It:

“Sofia Kourtesis is fill of innovation and creativity with a taste for unique noises. Having risen from the dross that clutters Soundcloud, she has appeared on several serious musical radars.

The Berlin resident recently released her debut EP, This Is It, which is overtly catchy and melodic mood music. You can immediately hear the passion behind the music Sofia's making and this first EP is frighteningly good. It was obvious EARMILK needed to reach out and hear who she is and how she's capable of such impressive sounds.

EM: Definitely. What are you most excited about with your new EP, This Is It, being released?

Sofia:  I'm excited about the reaction from people. It was a very emotional process for me because every song was a personal relief to make.

EM:  Quite a few of the tracks are related to your family, correct?

Sofia:  Yeah, more than anything it's about the death of my granny. I tried to write about all my emotions that came to me when she died. Fresia is the name of my mother too.

EM:  How long did This Is It take to make in its entirety?

Sofia:  Well it took a while because I wasn't always working on it. The last half went really quickly, but the beginning was slow. I would say roughly two years.

zz.jpg

EM:  Which track did you have the most fun to make?

Sofia:  I think probably  "Abue" because it was really funny to produce. I was jamming around with Gold Panda at the time and it felt really organic. We made it in only 30 minutes.

EM:  How has growing up in a city like Berlin influenced your musical growth?

Sofia:  Berlin is very inspiring and has really organic energy. Sometimes when I don't go out at night, I'll wake up really early, take a break, and go into a club at 7am. The new material I'm making is really Berlin influenced. I needed to put my past away and move on as an artist. Now that I'm here in Berlin I'm experiencing a new change”.

I cannot include all of Sofia Kourtesis’ best songs in this feature. I would advise people to listen back to her catalogue and discover an artist who, pretty much from the off, announced herself as a seriously innovative and phenomenal artist. I think that many eyes and ears will be on her having accomplished so much in her career so far. I would urge people to follow her on social media and, if possible, go and see her perform live in the future if she is near you!

I want to bring things relatively up-to-date. The Peruvian-born artist spoke with NME about Fresia Magdalena and how she has developed and strengthened her sound through the years:

“For Sofia Kourtesis, the sea is a formative place. The Peru-born, Berlin-based producer spent her teenage years surfing on her home city Lima’s gorgeous Pacific Ocean coastlines, conquering the waves and finding a place where her rebellious spirit could flourish without interference. But when her father was diagnosed with leukaemia a decade later, the pair became willing observers, not partakers; they would sit together on the beach, lost watching the tide drifting in and out, succumbing to its meditative ways. The serenity doesn’t necessarily compute with her “overworked” brain, but the hours whiled away together provided a form of mental and physical pain relief for her father during his battle.

That moment – among many – became the inspiration for her new EP, ‘Fresia Magdalena’, in particular the opening song, ‘La Perla’. As a steady beat locks onto ethereal backing vocals and a minimal melody, Sofia tells her father that she is “trying to change” and that the pair should be “trying to forget” about the illness and the world around them. For anyone who has experienced grief in the last year, it’s a soothing balm.

Showing vulnerability to her family makes for a radical move in Kourtesis’ career. She describes the previous two EPs – 2019’s self-titled effort and 2020’s ‘Sarita Colonia’ – as a playground for ideas, where club-orientated groovers jousted with samples from her favourite films. But they showed little of her emotions; the imagery of Sarita Colonia – the Peruvian patron saint of the poor – on the releases’ artwork providing the only real thread between releases.

mmm.jpg

On ‘Fresia Magdalena’, she is frank and open, namechecking family members (Fresia, her mother), sampling them (her father on ‘Nicolas’), and for the first time, singing. On ‘La Perla’, in particular, her vocals waft in and out of earshot, like a shell tumbling onto the sand and being pulled back into the water. It’s a wondrous step forward. “My last EPs were about happiness and losing it and three-day raves with my best friends, but this one had to be more about reflecting on my life – it was a big step to be without my samples or machines talking for me.”

And a live experience is where Sofia hopes to marry all of her talents; exhilarating house bangers set to stunning visuals shot on her travels. “I want a cinematic aspect. I want to transport the audience and send them messages via singing, visually or improvising and speaking directly. DJing is very superficial for me at the moment, so I want to be able to take the audience to my world through the things that I have created. I want to be more vulnerable, so this is why I wanted to open up and show them this live show.”

Though the inspiration ‘Fresia Magdalena’ was conceived in an insular moment with her late father, this EP is a welcome place to dip a toe into Sofia Kourtesis’ world. There are flashes of the many experiences she and her family have lived, fused together with a spirit that envisions a better world, without prejudice and liberation for all. The personal motto that she lives by should come as little surprise: “Life never has a happy end, but there is hope if we work as a community”.

As I said earlier, there have been positive reviews for Fresia Magdalena. Maybe it is the fact that it is an E.P. (they tend to get less attention than albums), but I feel more critical minds should get involved with Fresia Magdalena and lend their impressions. Returning to NME…this is what they remarked:

“Opening track ‘La Perla’ is a moving yet uplifting memory of her late father, which sees Kourtesis staring out to sea and singing on record for the first time. Shimmering synths shine over her heartfelt Spanish lyrics while a choir of voices, percussive instrumentation and a whistled outro channel a revelatory air of long-awaited peace and serenity.

The nostalgic glimmer of ‘Nicolas’ and the entrancing near-seven-minute throb of ‘Dakotas’ both utilise natural elements brilliantly, too. ‘Nicolas’’s drum patterns chime with water trickling down a window to form the backdrop to a recorded conversation, while the camera clicks and chugging synth whirrs of ‘Dakotas’ conjure up a long train journey home. The reassuring voice sample that runs through final track ‘Juntos’ – which translates to ‘together’ in English – acts as a guiding light through dark times, ending the EP on a note of optimism.

By threading a sense of personality and place into her contemplative yet gradually anthemic creations, Kourtesis paints a vivid picture on ‘Fresia Magdalena’ of the locations and moments that she is inviting the outside world to discover and understand through her music. Much like her recent reworkings of Ela Minus’ ‘megapunk’ and Georgia’s ‘24 Hours’, Kourtesis’ latest EP more than proves that club-ready music can be beautiful, thought-provoking and banging all at the same time”.

I think Sofia Kourtesis will get even stronger and striking as an artist. She is a remarkably original composer and someone who has a very long and bright future. Go and give her a follow and keep a look out for what comes next. With Fresia Magdalena, Kourtesis has created…

A stunner of an E.P.

_____________

Follow Sofia Kourtesis

aaaaaa.jpg

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Sampha - Process

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

eee.jpg

Sampha - Process

___________

I was going to include…

z.jpg

SOPHIE’s OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES in Vinyl Corner, but it is out of stock at the moment and the only versions available are expensive – and I have promised a more affordable vinyl for this week! I am keen to include SOPHIE’s album soon because, as she passed recently, it is fitting to pay tribute. Instead, I am going to look at Sampha’s 2017 debut, Process. It won the Mercury Prize that year and, as we await a follow-up, I would encourage people to grab Process on vinyl. I will bring in a couple of reviews for the remarkable album in a bit. Rough Trade provide some background regarding Sampha:

“Sampha releases his highly-anticipated debut album. Titled Process, the ten track album is released on via Young Turks, featuring the singles Timmy’s Prayer and Blood On Me. Since the release of his debut Sundanza EP in 2010 and 2013’s Dual EP, Sampha has quietly but assuredly become one of the UK’s most enigmatic and respected artists. Still just twenty seven years old, he has lent his vocal, production and songwriting talents to a range of stand out releases, from UK contemporaries such as FKA twigs, Jessie Ware and SBTRKT to world-renowned superstars like Drake, Kanye West and, most recently this year, on Frank Ocean’s Endless and Solange’s A Seat At The Table albums. Now it’s time for Sampha to tell his own story and Process, produced by Sampha himself and Rodaidh McDonald, is set to be his defining musical statement”.

I think that Sampha’s next album will have some elements of Process, but he will move in new directions. I look at artists like him as being really bright lights of the future. The thirty-two-year-old Londoner Sampha Lahai Sisay has such a remarkable voice and songwriting vision! I am wondering how his upcoming music will sound and whether, like fellow Mercury-winning artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, he will take a big leap forward. In 2017, Sampha spoke with FACT about the process behind Process:

“He describes a “weird sort of outer-body experience” in learning to detach himself from self-doubt when making Process and thinking about its merit. “I would listen to other music and think, ‘what if my album is shit?'” he’s able to laugh now. “Anxiety has definitely been something I’ve struggled with, a presence in my life that has over time been responsible for me not doing certain things, or being overly cautious when doing them. Not going to the doctors or dentist ‘cos you’re more scared of what they could say than the reality. I get anxious a lot. But music in itself, and playing good shows, they help.”

After a busy summer that’s included massive shows at Coachella and Glastonbury, the singer is now looking ahead to the future, and what lies beyond a debut album that’s currently joint favorite at 6/1 to win this year’s Mercury Music Prize award for the best British album of the last 12 months, up there with Stormzy’s Gang Signs and Prayer.

“There’s a lot of things that came up while making this debut record where I thought ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to do this, to do that.’ Now I guess I can try to bring those things to life, compositionally and in terms of song structure and storytelling, trying to get a bit deeper,” he says. For fans who grew to love Sampha when he first emerged five years ago, it was a long journey to Process. Will his next release have an equally long gestation period? “You know, I really just want to connect to what I’m making, which sort of dictates it a little bit. But I definitely want to put out more music. I’m not sure how long it will be till my next album, but I don’t want to wait to release more music. I want to be a bit more free.”

Spoken like a man with a weight off his shoulders”.

There is something satisfyingly tight and focused about Process. At ten tracks and forty minutes, it is an album that never outstays its welcome and leaves you very satisfied. I think Process is balanced so you get strong songs in both halves - Blood on Me and (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano are in the first half; Under and Incomplete Kisses are in the second half. The fact Sampha wrote all the songs himself (Kanye West is credited on Timmy’s Prayers) and co-produced with Rodaidh McDonald means there is this truth and sense of self that could have been distilled by other writers and producers.

The reviews for Process have been hugely positive. I want to bring in AllMusic’s review of, in my mind, one of the finest albums of 2017:

“The categorically elusive Sampha arrived in 2010 with a co-headlined SBTRKT collaboration and a solo EP, then became known more for supporting roles as a songwriter, producer, vocalist, and keyboardist. After he recorded with fellow Brits Lil Silva and Jessie Ware, his commercial presence was magnified by Drake, whose Nothing Was the Same featured him on a couple tracks. Within a few years, Sampha had collected credits on works by a slew of mainstream artists, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and Solange, as he assisted comparatively marginal but significant figures like FKA Twigs and Bullion. He also inched toward the completion of Process, an artful and accessible debut full-length. Admirably, the album is without opportunistic reciprocal collaborations, unless one inconspicuous Kanye West co-composition counts. It's largely a solitary and intensely personal effort, co-produced by Rodaidh McDonald, ranging from placid piano ballads to urgent electro-soul. All the narratives, expressed in anguished, repentant, and haunted terms, befit a voice that always sounds as if it's on the brink of choking back tears. Sampha's vocals can be an acquired taste, but they're instantly identifiable and heartfelt. They're all the more compelling when detailing interpersonal ruptures, drawing imagery like "I took the shape of a letter, slipped myself underneath your door," or in a state of agitation, "gasping for air."

The album reaches its most stirring point in "Kora Sings," built on an alternately serene and jittery production, over which Sampha sings to his dying mother, trailing off after "You don't know how strong you are."

None of it is particularly light. Sampha's exquisite melodies and detailed productions nonetheless make all the references to longing, disturbed sleep, injurious heat, and shattered glass go down easy. "Reverse Faults," sparkling low-profile trap with a dizzying combination of smeared glints and jutting background vocals, might be the best display of Sampha's skill set. Another marvel is the hurtling, breakbeat-propelled "Blood on Me," its last 40 seconds juiced with some of the nastiest synthesized bass since Alexander O'Neal's "Fake." In a way, this all makes the previous output seem merely preliminary”.

If you have not experienced Sampha then make sure you go and buy Process. If not, then stream the album, as it is a remarkable work! I have been dipping in and out of the album since it came out in 2017. Not that there is expectation and too much pressure on Sampha to follow such a sensational debut, but there are going to be many eyes his way in the coming months.

I want to finish off by sourcing from a review from Pitchfork. They understood the depth and personal importance of Process:  

“In a way, Process feels like a concept album on which Sampha rediscovers himself. The musician’s mother was diagnosed with cancer the same year Sundaza came out, and as her primary caregiver, he naturally focused his attention on her well-being. Now, he’s attempting to reconnect with his core while coping with despair. In the past, he’d mix his voice to fit within the instrumental; on Process, he makes it the focal point. Co-produced with Rodaidh McDonald, *Process *brings to mind James Blake while nodding to mainstream hip-hop. On “Under,” in particular, Sampha utilizes a sleek trap beat.

Even the album’s most upbeat tracks are shaded with tension. “You’ve been with me since the cradle,” Sampha recalls on “Kora Sings,” presumably referring to his mom. “You’ve been with me, you’re my angel, please don’t you disappear.” With “Blood on Me,” the album’s second single, the vocalist sings through heavy breaths, seemingly haunted by his own insecurities. It addresses the fear of moving forward after personal trauma, and for a quiet soul like Sampha, it also speaks to the panic of navigating the world by himself. “I’m on this road now,” he exclaims. “I’m so alone now/Swerving out of control now”.

I am going to end there. I am also going to go and listen to Process again. It is an album that left a mark on me when it was released. Four years since it came along, Process continues to amaze and move me. I don’t think there are any firm plans or dates when it comes to Sampha’s second album. Until then, sit back and enjoy…

HIS incredible debut.

FEATURE: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me: After Shoplifters of the World, Will There Be a Film That Properly Explores The Smiths’ Legacy and Importance?

FEATURE:

 

 

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

aaa.jpg

After Shoplifters of the World, Will There Be a Film That Properly Explores The Smiths’ Legacy and Importance?

 __________________

A week ago……

mmm.jpg

 IN THIS PHOTO: Ellar Coltrane as Dean in Shoplifters of the World/PHOTO CREDIT: RLJE Films

there was a lot of negative chatter online regarding the trailer for a new film, Shoplifters of the World. It is not a biopic of The Smiths, yet it is loaded with their music and seems to be a sort of (if strange) coming-of-age story. Maybe that is the wrong tag, yet we get a soundtrack of songs by The Smiths without there being this engrossing story. The A.V. Club provided their impressions:

“Shoplifters Of The World seems intended as a love letter to The Smiths, but in trying to convey the British band’s importance, it comes across more like fan fiction—too reference-heavy for a general audience, too shallow for those already in the know. The catalyzing event for a tight-knit group of recent high school graduates is the Smiths’ 1987 breakup, which sends poor Cleo (Helena Howard of Madeline’s Madeline) into a performative funk. Not only is her friend group heading in different life directions, but her guiding musical light has been dimmed. She turns to shy record store clerk Dean (Boyhood star Ellar Coltrane), who’s nursing a crush on Cleo and allows her to shoplift all the cassettes she can pocket. (Strangely, it’s a lot of Smiths’ tapes, which presumably she’d already own.)

In a grand romantic gesture undercut with the threat of violence—those always work out well—Dean takes over a heavy metal radio station, holding DJ Full Metal Mickey (Magic Mike’s Joe Manganiello) at gunpoint and insisting that he play nothing but The Smiths all night long. This part of the story—very loosely based on an actual event—is supposed to provide the movie’s hook, but the resulting conflict is basically non-existent. There’s never the sense that this sweet, mopey kid presents any real danger, so the relationship heads where good stories go to die: sweet understanding and unearned growth. Dean and the DJ talk like old chums about divorce, vegetarianism, and music. Metal Mickey rapidly learns to appreciate The Smiths, even though he’s a diehard Metallica fan, and Dean learns that there might be some common ground between the music he worships and the music he despises. (Spoiler: It’s the New York Dolls.)

Meanwhile, the bulk of Shoplifters concerns itself with four other characters navigating that same night, and each is absolutely malnourished by the script. Patrick (James Bloor) won’t have sex with his jonesing-for-it girlfriend, Sheila (Elena Kampouris), claiming to be celibate like Smiths’ singer Morrissey, when in actuality he’s wrestling with his sexuality. Meanwhile, oddball Billy (Nick Krause) also holds a flame for Cleo, but finds sexual satisfaction in pink balloons. (He’s also about to join the military, and his very hetero dad couldn’t be more proud.) Each has a surface-level story, but none has much of a personality beyond “Smiths fan.” In order to explain that fandom, the movie turns to archival interviews with Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, sprinkling them liberally throughout as a complement to the Smiths-heavy soundtrack.

To further reinforce the band’s importance, Shoplifters Of The World crams Smiths’ lyrics into its characters’ mouths in nearly every scene, a choice that moves from distraction to annoyance pretty quickly—especially when the song quotes don’t exactly address the plot. When Cleo breaks down about her life in front of Billy and reveals that they tried to be a couple once but it didn’t work out, he says, “I would leap in front of a flying bullet for you.” The line makes great sense in the context of a great song—”What Difference Does It Make?”—but very little as a line of dialogue here. Smiths devotees might get a kick out of these quotes for a while. Everyone else will be left scratching their heads. The gimmick is so pervasive that it’d almost be a relief if one of the characters turned to camera and said, “Those are Smiths lyrics!” Perhaps it could even inspire a drinking game, though if you consumed a shot every time it happened, you’d be on the floor before the movie ended.

For years, Smiths fans retold the story that inspired Shoplifters Of The World as fact, but what actually happened is far more in keeping with the band’s outsider legacy than a bunch of attractive teens quoting lyrics and wrestling with post-adolescence. Denver alt-weekly Westword set the record straight a few years back, revealing that in reality, a depressed teen named James Kiss parked outside a radio station with a rifle, planning to force the staff to play his Smiths tapes over the air. But after seeing a station employee in the parking lot, he decided not to go through with it, later saying, “I didn’t want to hurt anybody, let alone scare anybody.” Those deeply invested in the music of The Smiths—which is still relevant and powerful nearly 40 years later, a fact undamaged by this movie—will recognize that story as more true to the band’s nuanced legacy: teenaged, clumsy, and shy, but also complicated and believable. Nothing in Shoplifters Of The World comes close to those latter qualities”.

Maybe it is best to avoid the film, but there are so many fans of The Smiths around the world that would love to see something in the way of a biopic. When it comes to portraying The Smiths on film, the only other example I can recalls is 2017’s England Is Mine. That was a British biographical drama film, based on the early years of singer Morrissey, before he formed The Smiths in 1982 with Johnny Marr. That got some mixed reviews (here is what The Guardian said), so I wonder whether there will be another attempt.

As the band formed in Manchester in 1982, it would seem like a perfect time to launch a film – bring it out next year to mark forty years of the iconic band. Their magnificent third studio album, The Queen Is Dead, turns thirty-five in June, so there will be new interest then. Although the band went their separate ways and there is very little chance of reformation, one cannot underplay the importance of The Smiths and the impact they made on so many people’s lives. There have been a lot of music biopics released through the years. The trend is showing no signs of decline. Maybe a biopic about The Smiths might not be in the pipeline, though I feel a film that has this coming-of-age vibe where we get a soundtrack of The Smiths’ music would be popular. Having a story that integrates the songs more naturally and impactfully and crafting a storyline that is compelling and a must-watch would be a step up from Shoplifters of the World. I feel the band deserve a lot of small and big screen love, so I do hope that there are plans for something else. Perhaps a film that picks up from England Is Mine and we get to see the band record their first few albums and the sort of impact they had on people at the time. I think that naming it Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loves Me would be fitting, as it is a favourite of both Johnny Marr and Morrissey - and, as it is on their final album, Strangeways, Here We Come (1987), there is a bittersweet tinge. I, like many fans of The Smiths, hope that we will see a worthy and satisfying Smiths-related film next year to mark forty years since…

THE hugely influential Manchester band formed.

FEATURE: Spotlight: The Snuts

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

xxx.jpg

The Snuts

___________

I have not included many…

c.jpg

Scottish bands in my Spotlight feature. Today, I wanted to throw some love at West Lothian’s The Snuts. They are a band I have been listening to, though there is a timelessness to featuring them now. Not only is there talk as to whether Rock is dead and whether there are young bands that can excite; The Snuts are definitely proving that there is ammunition and diversity in the Rock scene. To be fair, The Snuts mix in Indie and other sounds so one gets this incredible brew. A more important reason for including them now is that their debut album, W.L., is out on 2nd April. It was meant to come out two weeks before but, due to potential freight delays caused by the pandemic and Brexit, this is the new date. You can pre-order the album. This is what Rough Trade wrote about the album:

“The Snuts release their raucous, hook laden debut album, W.L. on Parlophone Records.

Hailing from Whitburn, West Lothian, The Snuts have well and truly found their stride on W.L.. Produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix, M83) and recorded at the Firepit London, the album encapsulates the band’s journey from four working class kids growing up with a dream in Whitburn, to becoming one of the UK’s most exciting and vital bands of the new decade. The album opens with the poignant ‘Top Deck’, winding through a voyage of genres including the raw, rousing, hip-hop driven ‘Elephants, heart-wrenchingly honest ‘Boardwalk’, the undeniable pop banger ‘Somebody Loves You’, the hauntingly heartfelt anthem ‘Always’ and the main stage festival ready hymn, ‘All Your Friends’.

Adored up and down the country for their uninhibited, sweat-drenched live shows, the band have also announced a UK tour for May/June 2021 – totalling over 25,000 tickets, including a dream show at Glasgow’s Barrowlands on 11th June”.

You can get the album in a range of different bundles. I like how much choice the band are giving buyers. I think that, when venues open and festivals kick back off, The Snuts are going to be among the chasing back when it comes to the most exciting British bands. I am going to bring in a few interviews before I wrap things up. The Mic spoke with The Snuts’ lead, Jack Cochrane, last September and they discussed the complexity of performing live during a pandemic and keeping momentum going:

“When asked about the logistics of performing in the pandemic era however, Cochrane admitted that it had been more difficult to stoke an atmosphere. “Connection with the crowd is such a big factor,” he starts, “but it’s actually 50/50 between connection with the crowd and connection with the rest of the band.” After months of quarantine, he professes how joyous it was to feel that on-stage bond with his bandmates once more, and how that carried them through perhaps their most unusual gig to date.

Cochrane has long been praised for the infectious energy he brings to live shows, but the frontman speaks candidly about being “a lot more reserved off-stage” and “turning on-and-off his on-stage persona.” In fact, the Scot never intended to be a frontman, being perfectly happy playing the guitar, but having tried numerous singers whom he dubbed “pretty awful,” he realised that keeping his 14-year-old dreams of being in a band alive meant being the lead singer. “I started off awful but the important thing to realise is that not all people just open their mouth and god-like stuff comes out,” he laughed.

“We realised the hard way that as soon as you put boundaries and rules on your music then you’re only going to end up with what you started with.”

With a turbulent few months on the horizon, such optimism will likely be needed to maintain The Snuts momentum and keep the band inspired. “We’re always trying to do something different from our last release”, Cochrane divulges, “I don’t know whether that hinders us or not but it’s something we enjoy.” “We like to try and break that stigma around indie music that it’s all washed-up and regurgitated,” he continues shrewdly, “we’re so conscious of making sure that we’re always developing, challenging each other and challenging our sound to see what we can get away with.”

When asked how he sees the band’s sound developing in the future, Cochrane admits “nothing would surprise me.” “We realised the hard way that as soon as you put boundaries and rules on your music then you’re only going to end up with what you started with.” Collaborations are one avenue the frontman seems open to exploring, sharing that he has been recently listening to a host of female singer-songwriters who he “is certainly inspired by.” “There’s so many I’d love to do a song with,” he remarks jovially, “although collaborations have never been something we’ve really looked into in a lot of depth”.

Last year, Far Out Magazine talked with Cochrane about the band’s Mixtape EP and looking ahead to the release of their much-anticipated debut record:

“At the start of 2020, I caught up with The Snuts before they shared Mixtape EP, a release that should have acted as the final teaser before unleashing their debut album. However, like all those working within a creative industry, the global pandemic would put their plans on ice. Almost twelve months later and news of the album has finally arrived, a project entitled W.L. that will be made available on March 19th, and The Snuts are determined to make up for the lost time in 2021.

The record is an encapsulation of the formative years of the band. It begins with the impressive stripped back ‘Top Deck’, a track that was penned by frontman Jack Cochrane when he was just 15-years-old then, without warning, W.L. erupts into the group’s emphatic single ‘Always’. The album showcases a myriad of styles throughout the record which not only makes for a captivating listen but, also documents the growth of a band that is refusing to link themselves with one sound intrinsically.

The Snuts have been sitting patiently on this record throughout 2020, releasing more snippets from the album then they would have liked for fans to chew on. Releasing the record is something that they have been edging towards for years, and now that moment is finally here.

ccc.jpg

To celebrate the release of the album, the band will be finally returning to the road and travelling across Britain before returning home to Glasgow for a raucous sold-out three-night residency at the world-famous Barrowlands. Just a matter of hours after the hometown dates sold-out, frontman Jack Cochrane logged into my Zoom meeting, and he was understandably situated on cloud nine.

“It’s been a big goal for us since day one. It’s always felt like a venue that would be a milestone for us as a band so selling three out in one day? It could be worse,” he gleefully said. This is a venue that played a pivotal role in his musical upbringing, although Cochrane semi-jokingly admits, “I’ve probably been thrown out of more gigs there than I haven’t been. I’ve seen The Libertines, Babyshambles and Pete Doherty probably the most there and all these classic childhood indie heroes. There’s just something so iconic about The Barrowlands.”

Managing to maintain that youthful spirit whilst not being those same exuberant kids who recorded ‘Glasgow’ all those years ago is a task that The Snuts rise to on W.L. and is a poetic way of drawing a line in the sand under those early days of the band back before it was a job.

The title of the record is another nod to their youths, but not to West Lothian, as Cochrane joyfully corrects me. “Naw man, that’s a common misconception, but it’s actually after ‘Whitburn Loopy’. We’re from a town called Whitburn, and every town in Scotland has what we call young teams, but it’s basically gangs. It’s a nod to how we started out on the streets and in the forest, playing the guitar, drinking cider and stuff like that. I feel like because the record is such a progression, it’s nice to name it something that meant a lot to us back then.”

While the Whitburn Loopy days are held in the fondest of memories by the band, their rise has taken them from youth team members to a group with a platform that they are using for good by trying to help the music industry get back on its feet. They have been ardent supporters of the #LetMusicPlay campaign, an organisation which is trying to help the crew members who work behind the scenes in live music and don’t get the plaudits from fans but without them, everything would fall to pieces”.

I think that the buzz and hope surrounding The Snuts is justified. There are a lot of bands that get hyped - and you feel that they will not be able to live up to the expectation. When it comes to the Scottish band, they are definitely ready to deliver. The final interview I want to grab from is an NME piece from April of last year (I am writing this on 24th March, so I am aware there may be new interviews online between this time and when the feature goes live). At the start of lockdown and a troubling time, it must have been stressful for The Snuts - given how they hoped to perform live and get their music out there:

“When we first wrote the song it had a classic rock sound, something like The Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ and even a bit of Primal Scream,” frontman Jack Cochrane told NME. “So we were keen to not ignore those influences, but also make sure it still sounded like us. It isn’t a carbon copy, but we wanted to get the same reaction that Primal Scream always get at those huge festivals and gigs.”

The EP, meanwhile, arrived at the beginning of the UK’s lockdown – which has forced the group to postpone their biggest show to date at London’s O2 Forum next month. However, Cochrane insists that the band will come back stronger when the crisis finally comes to an end.

“What’s been great for us is just having a release during the madness,” he told NME. “It’s been nice to take people’s eyes and ears off the news at the moment. We’ve been able to put something positive out in the world, which has been a blessing for us. We’ve kinda been able to ignore the madness.”

He added: “It’s just one of those things. There are people in a lot worse positions than us at the moment, and we know the show is just postponed.  When live music comes back, we’ll be there at the forefront to bring it back with a bang. We’ll be adding dates to sold out shows, bigger venues and try to make the best of a bad situation. We’ll be providing a positive when we get out of this tunnel”.

I am looking forward to seeing where The Snuts head next. Their debut album is out very soon so, if you check out the band and like what you hear, go and get their album. It could well be a contender for a Mercury Prize nomination! Keep an eye on their social media channels for gig news because, if they are playing live near you then go and see them. You most definitely…

DO not want to miss out.

______________

Follow The Snuts

ccc.jpg

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Boyz II Men - II

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

zzxxx.jpg

Boyz II Men - II

 

ALTHOUGH I have spent a bit of time…

zzz.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images

in the ‘90s for this feature, I am going to divert my attention away from the decade next week. This week, I wanted to recommend Boyz II Men and their third studio album (they released Christmas Interpretations in 1993, though II is the second album of original compositions after the remarkable debut, Cooleyhighharmony), II. Released in 1994, it is a terrific album from one of the greatest vocal groups in history. I guess we do not have acts like Boyz II Men around now. That said, the group is now a trio. Their thirteenth studio album, Under the Streetlight was released in 2017. Although they are not quite up to the level they were in the ‘90s, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman are keeping the flag flying! Before bringing in an article and review for II, I thought it would be worth dropping in some background information:

“II is the third studio album and second non-Christmas album (hence the title) by American R&B quartet Boyz II Men, released on August 30, 1994 on Motown Records. It contained the No. 1 singles "I'll Make Love to You" and "On Bended Knee", the latter of which replaced the former at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, making the group the third artist to replace themselves at No. 1 in the United States after Elvis Presley and The Beatles and the first to achieve the feat in 30 years.

"I'll Make Love to You" also spent 14 weeks at the top of the Hot 100 making them the first artist to achieve consecutive double digit runs at the top, with their prior single "End of the Road" topping the charts for 13 weeks and also equaled the record set by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" for the longest run at the top, a record which they held previously with "End of the Road". Other singles released achieved major success, including "Water Runs Dry", which reached No. 2, and "Thank You", which reached No. 21. "Vibin'", however, only reached No. 52.

The spoken track "Khalil (Interlude)" is a tribute to their road manager Khalil Roundtree who was shot in Chicago, Illinois while the band was opening for MC Hammer's Too Legit to Quit tour.[1] II became the inaugural winner of the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, first presented at the 37th Grammy Awards in 1995.

According to producer Bob Robinson of the duo Tim & Bob, he and his partner Tim Kelley were asked by Boyz II Men to produce most of II. However, Motown Records then-president Jheryl Busby did not feel comfortable with the idea of two unknown producers dominating a second album from a group that was one of the biggest acts in the world at the time. As a result, Busby brought in Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Babyface to deliver hit singles for the project. Busby insisted on "I'll Make Love to You" being the first single, despite objections from the group- who felt there were songs that could have been much stronger singles. The song became one of Boyz II Men's biggest hits”.

If you can pick up II on vinyl then do, as it is not too expensive at all. I’ll Make Love to You is a classic of the period, though there are plenty of awesome songs to keep you invested from start to finish. All Around the World and On Bended Knee are among my other favourite tracks from II.

In their review of the album, this is what AllMusic noted:

“With their second album, II, Boyz II Men assured their place at the top of the charts, as well as history. "I'll Make Love to You," the album's first single, stayed on the top of the charts for over two months, only to be unseated by "On Bended Knee," the album's second single. Not surprisingly, II is a carefully constructed crowd pleaser, accentuating all of the finest moments from their hit debut. While there are some high-energy dance tracks, the album's main strength is its slower numbers, where the group's vocals soar”.

On 30th August, 2019, GRAMMY celebrated twenty-five years of II and spoke with Wanya Morris and Nathan Morris about the time. I have selected some interesting segments:

“As soon as an artist experiences success with their debut album, the shadow of the dreaded "sophomore slump" starts swirling on the horizon. In the 1990s, however, there were quite a few second album smashes that showed just how defiantly that curse can crumble under rarified musical talent, mastercraft songwriting and record-breaking runs at the top of the charts. Throughout the pre-millennium decade, Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest delivered undeniable game changers with Nevermind and Low End Theory, TLC and Oasis more than doubled the achievements of their multi-platinum debuts with CrazySexyCool and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and Boyz II Men achieved inescapable pop culture ubiquity with their 12x platinum-selling, multiple record-breaking, triple GRAMMY Award-winning album, II, which celebrates its 25th anniversary milestone this month.

Spearheaded by the strength of a pair of Billboard number one singles ("I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee") and a Billboard number two chaser ("Water Runs Dry"), II debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, maintained a solid five-week run at the top spot and ended up staying on the charts for just shy of two full years. A couple months before the release of II, the Philly foursome offered up the Babyface-penned "I'll Make Love to You" as the album's lead single and the steamy ballad had radio and MTV on absolute lockdown during the late summer of 1994. "I'll Make Love to You" ended up eventually tying the record for the most weeks at number one by matching Whitney Houston's 14-week stretch of "I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard.

The group’s unparalleled vocal harmonies and the impossible-not-to-sing-along-with chorus of "I'll Make Love To You" might’ve been enough to surpass Houston's record if only they hadn’t been knocked out of the top spot by… the album's second single, "On Bended Knee." By December, the summer sizzler handed the crown over to the winter weeper as Boyz II Men became only the third musical act of all-time to replace themselves at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had achieved it before them). To look back on these astounding achievements and to commemorate 25 years of II, The Recording Academy spoke with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris and Nathan Morris about what all went into making their second album such an immediate and long-lasting success.

Wanya Morris: After the success of our first album, it felt like a lot of people were starting to realize that Boyz II Men was a force to be reckoned with. Our voices and our harmonies were evolving and becoming more mature. That allowed us to try new things and people were really receptive to our creativity. It seemed like we couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized. I remember walking down the street near Yodoyabashi Station in Osaka and people would run up to us and yell out our names. It felt so huge because in our minds, we were just four dudes from Philly.

Nathan Morris: For me, it was all a whirlwind because singing wasn’t really my first choice for a career. I grew up wanting to play professional football, but my mom pushed me into going to a performing arts school. That’s actually the whole reason why there’s even a Boyz II Men at all. I got bored at school, so I just started a singing group in my spare time. Everything that was happening for us as Boyz II Men wasn’t really anything that I had ever dreamed of or expected. So, I was just taking everything in as it came, enjoying it, and trying to soak it all up.

Following the massive success of their debut album, Cooleyhighharmony, and its pair of Top 5 singles ("Motownphilly" and their cover of G. C. Cameron's "It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday"), Boyz II Men's doo-wop-meets-New Jack Swing-meets-hip-hop musical hybrid and their relentless work ethic were all on full display during a frenzied pop culture blitz that included opening for M.C. Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit tour, filming an episode of MTV Unplugged with Joe Public and Shanice, earning a Top 5 standalone single with their cover of "In the Still of the Night (I Remember)," appearing in the holiday episode "Twas the Night Before Christening" on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and recording the double-platinum holiday album Christmas Interpretations (featuring the seasonal radio hit "Let It Snow" with Brian McKnight). During this crucial between-albums timeframe, they also scored their first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "End Of The Road" from the Boomerang soundtrack. At the time, "End of the Road" broke the record for longevity at the top of the charts with its impressive 13-week run. It would be the first of three times that Boyz II Men were a part of achieving this notable accolade.

ddd.jpg

IN THIS PHOTO: Nathan Morris 

Nathan Morris: Going into the second album, our confidence level was pretty high. Motown didn't really know what to do with us when they signed us, so we got to write almost the whole first album by ourselves. Since that album went nine times platinum, that gave us a lot of confidence as writers and producers going into the second album.

Wanya Morris: Honestly, it was a pretty hectic time. Things had gotten so big with the first album and then "End Of The Road" came out and blew up. We were really feeling the pressure, but the process had to start somewhere. So, we just did what we always do, which is get in the studio and start writing songs and recording demos.

Nathan Morris: Dallas Austin had produced most of our first album, but he wasn’t available for the second album. So, he recommended we try working with Tim & Bob, who were kind of his B-team. We got in the studio with them and started working on a bunch of the songs that we felt good about. We clicked really well, so Tim & Bob ended up producing most of the songs on the second album.

Wanya Morris: We actually fought really hard against having "I'll Make Love to You" be the lead single. We had just come off of "End Of The Road" and we didn’t want to come back with a song that had the same sound. Our label was adamant about it though. They did all this market research and we were just researching our hearts, so we were told to deal with it. Clearly, they were right on that one!

After the release of II, Boyz II Men became certified global superstars. The album achieved multi-platinum sales in Canada and Australia, and it hit the top of the album charts in France and New Zealand. In fact, international demand was so high for the blockbuster album that the gifted vocalists upped their game by rerecording the album’s three big hits and their acapella cover of The Beatles' "Yesterday" in Spanish for a special version of the album called II: Yo Te Voy a Amar. As had become their signature move, the guys had no problem rising to the challenge and possibly even outdoing themselves in the process”.

I think that Boyz II Men are one of those groups that don’t get mentioned and played as much as they should. I think their catalogue is brilliant, and II is an album that showcases their amazing chemistry and vocal blends! Go and get a phenomenal album on vinyl and experience the smooth, sexy vibes only they can deliver! I remember II coming out in 1994 and there being a lot of heat around Boyz II Men. It is true that one cannot really compare them with anyone of today. One could forgive them for feeling expectation following the success of their debut, Cooleyhighharmony. Instead, they released II with…

NO nerves or weak moments.

FEATURE: Inspired By... Part Three: Stevie Nicks

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By...

aaa.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: Peggy Sirota for Rolling Stone 

Part Three: Stevie Nicks

___________

A lot of people realise how influential…

mmm.jpg

 PHOTO CREDIT: Randee St Nicholas

and important Fleetwood Mac are. I wonder if people think of Stevie Nicks (who is a member of the band) as influential. I think she is an enormously important and influential artist. I will try not to repeat too many artists in these playlists – though I know that many of these musicians I spotlight would have inspired the same artists. I may broaden out and include a group for the next edition. This feature focuses on a great artist and, in a playlist at the end, I include songs from artists who are definitely influenced by them in some way – so far, I have included Prince and Grace Jones. Here is some information about the amazing Stevie Nicks:

“Stevie Nicks was born in Phoenix, Arizona. From an early age, she showed a love and aptitude for music, singing country and western duets with her grandfather when she was 4 years old. After moving to San Francisco, she began songwriting and performing at Menlo-Atherton High School, where she met her future long-time companion, Lindsey Buckingham. After smaller projects failed, she and Lindsey signed with Polydor Records, and produced their collaboration, "Buckingham-Nicks". The album flopped, and the two (who were now lovers) were dropped from the label, but not before attracting the attention of Mick Fleetwood, who invited them to join Fleetwood Mac. Two years later, in 1975, Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album topped the charts, headlined by Stevie's "Rhiannon". Success for the band, and for Stevie, was immediate. The legendary "Rumours" album followed in 1977, at the same time Stevie's relationship with Lindsey came to an end. Stevie's solo career began in 1981 and met with instant success. The stress of maintaining a solo career and remaining with Fleetwood Mac became too much for her, and she became addicted to cocaine, and then to prescription medication. After undergoing treatment for her addictions, Stevie vowed she would never perform publicly again, but was lured out of retirement for Fleetwood Mac's 1997 reunion and continues to perform, write and record”.

Nicks’ last studio album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, came out in 2014. I hope that we get more music from her in the future. I am not sure whether Fleetwood Mac are recording or touring in the future. Let’s hope that we see a lot more from them! To highlight a legendary artist, this Inspired By… collects artists who count…

THE remarkable Stevie Nicks as an influence.